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Jerusalem is Arab Nationalism’s Bride
Muzaffer Al Nawwab Excerpts from the fiery poem: - Oh my country, exhibited at the market as a morning star They are lamenting you in the night brothels And some revolutionaries are perfecting their manhood Joggling at the [noise of the] drum and trumpet Those are your enemies, my country Who sold Palestine other than your enemies, O my country? Who by God, sold Palestine and accumulated a wealth Other than the list of beggars at the ruler’s thresholds And at the Great Powers’ tables?
As soon as the night put on its veils The cups crack avowing Jerusalem is your Arab Nationalism’s Bride Ahlan(welcome)…Ahlan(welcome) Who sold Palestine other than the pen’s revolutionaries? I have sworn by the bottlenecks of wine, though the cup full only of Poison And by this indigested revolutionary by the sea-oysters In Beirut Building a big belly till he lost his neck I have sworn by the history of starvation and the day of famine Not a single Arab would ever last if we remained at this Predicament Among the profiteering rulers
Jerusalem is the bride of your Arab Nationalism Why you brought in her room all the night’s adulterers And you remained behind the doors eavesdropping Hearing the screams of her virginity Then you drew all your daggers, bragging Yelling at her to hush lest her honor is blemished (IV-letter-word) I am not shy when I speak out frankly of your reality That a yard of hogs is much cleaner than all of you May the bench of washing the dead move, But you are immovable Now I expose/undress you In all the capitals of this Arab World You have killed my gaiety In every alley I see al-Azlam (the idols) Amami (before me) Till I became avoiding even the phone Even the walls and even the children Vomiting for this crude method
Let us sit before the feet of the Arabian Desert To let her pass a judgment on us I admit before the Desert That I am a banal, scoundrel and sad As your defeat O defeated honorable men O defeated rulers O defeated people How dirty, how dirty, how dirty we are. How dirty we are, I don’t exclude any one.
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