I am Adam with Two Edens Lost to me

“I’m the Adam of two Edens lost to me twice

expel me slowly, kill me slowly



with Garcia Lorca

under my olive tree.” - Mahmoud Darwish



My feet are torn,



And homelessness has worn me out.



Park seats have left their marks



on my ribs.



Policemen have followed me



With their suspicious looks.



I drag myself from place to place,



Destitute except for



Day-long memories of a home



That yesterday, only yesterday,



Was mine,



And except for evening dreams



Of my dwelling there again. - Iraqi poet Badr Sahakir Sayyab



" In The Summer



by Nizar Qabbani



In the summer

I stretch out on the shore

And think of you

Had I told the sea

What I felt for you,

It would have left its shores,

Its shells,

Its fish,

And followed me.





Translated by B. Frangieh And C. Brown









Mahmoud Darwish -

” So we are who we are, as the Mississippi flows,

and what remains from yesterday is still ours –

but the color of the sky has changed.

oh white master,

lord of the horses,

what do you want from those making their way

to the night woods?”

...

“Tamer of horses, teach your horse

to ask forgiveness of nature’s soul

for the way you’ve treated our trees”

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