I Am From There - Mahmoud Darwish

I am from there and I have memories. Like any other

Man I was born. I have a mother,

A house with several windows, friends and brothers.

I have a prison cell's cold window, a wave

Snatched by seagulls, my own view, an extra blade

Of grass, a moon at word's end, a supply

Of birds, and an olive tree that cannot die.

I walked across the land before the crossing

Of swords made a banquet-table of a body.

I come from there, and I return the sky

To its mother when it cries for her, and cry

For a cloud on its return

To recognize me. I have learned

All words befitting of blood's court to break

The rule; I have learned all the words to take

The lexicon apart for one noun's sake,

The compound I must make:

Homeland.

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Mahmoud Darwish (1941 - 2008) Palestine

Translated by  A.Z. Foreman

Source: Poems Found in Translation