Jasmine Revolution Poem - Mohammad al-Ajami Ibn al-Dheeb

Prime Minister, Mohamed al-Ghannouchi:

If we measured your might

it wouldn’t hold a candle

to a constitution.

We shed no tears for Ben Ali,

nor any for his reign.

It was nothing more than a moment

in time for us,

historical

and dictatorial,

a system of oppression,

an era of autocracy.

Tunisia declared the people’s revolt:

When we lay blame

only the base and vile suffer from it;

and when we praise

we do so with all our hearts.

A revolution was kindled with the blood of the people:

their glory had worn away,

the glory of every living soul.

So, rebel, tell them,

tell them in a shrouded voice, a voice from the grave:

tell them that tragedies precede all victories.

A warning to the country whose ruler is ignorant,

whose ruler deems that power

comes from the American army.

A warning to the country

whose people starve

while the regime boasts of its prosperity.

A warning to the country whose citizens sleep:

one moment you have your rights,

the next they’re taken from you.

A warning to the system—inherited—of oppression.

How long have all of you been slaves

to one man’s selfish predilections?

How long will the people remain

ignorant of their own strength,

while a despot makes decrees and appointments,

the will of the people all but forgotten?

Why is it that a ruler’s decisions are carried out?

They’ll come back to haunt him

in a country willing

to rid itself of coercion.

Let him know, he

who pleases only himself, and does nothing

but vex his own people; let him know

that tomorrow

someone else will be seated on that throne,

someone who knows the nation’s not his own,

nor the property of his children.

It belongs to the people, and its glories

are the glories of the people.

They gave their reply, and their voice was one,

and their fate, too, was one.

All of us are Tunisia

in the face of these oppressors.

The Arab regimes and those who rule them

are all, without exception,

without a single exception,

shameful, thieves.

This question that keeps you up at night—

its answer won’t be found

on any of the official channels…

Why, why do these regimes

import everything from the West—

everything but the rule of law, that is,

and everything but freedom?

---

Mohammad al-Ajami Ibn al-Dheeb (20th century) Qatar

Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Source: ArabLit