Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Beladi!!! A tribute to Palestinian and Arab steadfastness
My friend, talented translator and writer Adib Kawar, has translated this beautiful poem from Arabic. But, today, we have an Adib double-bill, because on Peacepalestine Documents, there is his deconstruction (well documented) of the Zionist Organisation of America's criticism of the CNN program about Jewish Zionist terrorists, "Gods' Warriors". My country is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist
About the Arab “September”
By: Muhammad Aratban
Translated by: Adib S. Kawar
- 1 –
- Beladi (my country) is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- Beladi (my country): For strangers unknown to us…our doors are open…
- Beladi: Our doors open for the voyagers who come to call…
- 2 –
- Beladi is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- Beladi: The simple and good people…
- For strangers who knock, our doors are open…
- Our food is theirs…
- The help they seek is willingly granted…
- Away they go and their names we ask not…
About the Arab “September”
By: Muhammad Aratban
Translated by: Adib S. Kawar
- 1 –
- Beladi (my country) is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- Beladi (my country): For strangers unknown to us…our doors are open…
- Beladi: Our doors open for the voyagers who come to call…
- 2 –
- Beladi is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- Beladi: The simple and good people…
- For strangers who knock, our doors are open…
- Our food is theirs…
- The help they seek is willingly granted…
- Away they go and their names we ask not…
- 3 -
- There are in it things disquieting …
- And what is pleasant too…
- In spite of its “roughness”
- For me it remains the most beautiful and noble…
- And the highest land on the earth…
- 4 -
Not a salary at the month’s end is beladi…
From the day of creation to eternity my treasure and fortune it is…
A national anthem played in a national celebration beladi is not…
A folk song that I sing, memorize and repeat whose author remains unknown it is…
And ecstatic I become with its love’s rhythm…
- 5 –
- Beladi, the athan* that the sky pierces… traveling in…
- Spatial voyages, “NASA” shall not be able to imitate ever … nor copy…
- Beladi… the first masjed** it is… All its soil good enough for prayer it is…
- 6 -
- Beladi with its great shyness… to tell me “I love you” it can’t….
- To make you feel, see, and with your hand touch love it can…
- 7 -
- Beladi… the hard cut men that the desert formed…
- When they fall in love they become river tribes…
- Childlike they become…
- Searching for a faraway corner…
- The tears to liberate from their eyes detention camps…
- 8 -
Beladi, “Haya’s” smile and “Al-Hazni’s” songs…
“Talala’s” thunderstorm, God is great I said…
My friend’s effect, like a thunderstorm I thought…
Like “Haya’s” lips… No I said…
Haya’s lips and thunderstorms a great difference there is… Beladi
Najd’s Levantine wind, and passion stories, and songs of glory…
- 9 –
All this concrete destroyed shall it be…
All this iron rusted shall it be…
And one day all this oil dry shall it be…
And beladi: The people destroyed they shall not be…
Their hearts rusted shall not be… And their souls’ wells dry shall not be …
Gone all this shall be… and beladi shall remain…
- 10 -
In the whole ignorant world’s face I shall shout…
- My country is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- 11 -
- Every year/ every September/ every day…
- You are my beloved, my mistress, my beladi…
* Athan = call for prayer
** Masjed = mosque
- There are in it things disquieting …
- And what is pleasant too…
- In spite of its “roughness”
- For me it remains the most beautiful and noble…
- And the highest land on the earth…
- 4 -
Not a salary at the month’s end is beladi…
From the day of creation to eternity my treasure and fortune it is…
A national anthem played in a national celebration beladi is not…
A folk song that I sing, memorize and repeat whose author remains unknown it is…
And ecstatic I become with its love’s rhythm…
- 5 –
- Beladi, the athan* that the sky pierces… traveling in…
- Spatial voyages, “NASA” shall not be able to imitate ever … nor copy…
- Beladi… the first masjed** it is… All its soil good enough for prayer it is…
- 6 -
- Beladi with its great shyness… to tell me “I love you” it can’t….
- To make you feel, see, and with your hand touch love it can…
- 7 -
- Beladi… the hard cut men that the desert formed…
- When they fall in love they become river tribes…
- Childlike they become…
- Searching for a faraway corner…
- The tears to liberate from their eyes detention camps…
- 8 -
Beladi, “Haya’s” smile and “Al-Hazni’s” songs…
“Talala’s” thunderstorm, God is great I said…
My friend’s effect, like a thunderstorm I thought…
Like “Haya’s” lips… No I said…
Haya’s lips and thunderstorms a great difference there is… Beladi
Najd’s Levantine wind, and passion stories, and songs of glory…
- 9 –
All this concrete destroyed shall it be…
All this iron rusted shall it be…
And one day all this oil dry shall it be…
And beladi: The people destroyed they shall not be…
Their hearts rusted shall not be… And their souls’ wells dry shall not be …
Gone all this shall be… and beladi shall remain…
- 10 -
In the whole ignorant world’s face I shall shout…
- My country is not a palace, an oil well or a terrorist…
- 11 -
- Every year/ every September/ every day…
- You are my beloved, my mistress, my beladi…
* Athan = call for prayer
** Masjed = mosque
Labels: Arab countries, Palestine, somoud, Zionism
