Jerusalem-forum@wanadoo.jo
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Izzidin al-
Manasra
Palestinian Poets
Manasra was
born in Hebron in 1946 and obtained in 1981 a Ph.D in Slavic
literature from the Bulgarian Academy of Science. He was the
Director of cultural programs in Jordanian radio, editor of
Palestinian Affairs magazine, and worked as a professor of
comparative literature in Constantine University in Algeria. Al-Manasra
has been the Secretary general of the Arab Contemporary Literary
Society since 1984. He has published many critical studies and
many volumes of poetry. He is regarded as one of the foremost
Palestinian poets of protest and resistance. He participated in
the Palestinian Cultural Spring held in France in 1997.One of
his main areas of interest has been reviving the style and
themes of Canaanite poetry. He lives in Jordan.
Dawn
Visitors
At the entries to capital cities I met him,
distracted and sad,
a man with worry lines
that weighed him down
like a cypress tree, drooping and silent,
despite the winds that ruffled him
whispering in the evenings-
but he would not answer the wind..
At the gates
of capital cities-I cannot name them
but I sing their Arabic names when troubles reign-
I call on the capitals when shells are slaughtering my people's
children. I call on them, I scream, but no one
answers.
They've all travelled west, and north. I wish
they'd gone east, I wish
they'd become stars in exile, servants to strangers.
At harvest time they sang under the pine trees
but none of the harvests was theirs..
it is for those hard hearted men
who owns the land of exile
Don't bury me in any Arab capital, they've all tortured me
for so long,
giving me nothing but death and suffering and poverty
and the martyred neighbors of my grave,
those new kinsmen, for every stranger is kinsman to the
stranger.
No, don't bury me in any Arab capital
at the mercy of this ordeal!
At the gate
of the capitals I met him
his head forever bent,
immortal as the earth of Hebron,
proud as the mountains of Safad.
He was soft like old wine when it steeps inside the body.
I would have
tempted the stars
to accompany his beautiful departure,
a star to guard him, and one lovely maiden
to tend him forever .
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