My Wound made Ablution of Gaza's Blood - Najat Zbair

The universe is empty dragging its carnage
Darkness occupies the bewilderment of things

1
I was selecting the braid of my broken times
The curse of sighs follows me
When I thought it a sparkle of lightning
Dragging its clothes in a sea of blood
She is the queen Sheba of earth
Her crown is prophesy
Peace to her hands' light.

2
Between her eyelids is a withered lane
The slightest of death mixes with her pulse
How can I console her
When the swans
Break with their war drums her door
Burn with its bombs her plants ?

3
She is the lady on whose shoulders is the magic of
An ancient history
I saw her hide her face from its traitors
"lo to Arabs who stoned her castle"
And old lady who passed through her voice smoke
Said

4
There near a small tent
Children begging its age
Hiding behind the massacres
Eating from its juices
Alas for a people that awakens naked in her shrouds!!!

5
Gaza in my blood writes her poem
With her red amaranth I wiped my injuries
And I lost myself among the lines of her morrow

---

Najat Zbair (20th century) Morocco
Translated by El Habib Louai
Source: Big Bridge Moroccan Poets Anthology