Salam to Gaza

Hussein Barghouthi
Translated from the Arabic by Suneela Mubayi

My sister will live without meMy family will live without mePart of me will live without meThe whole of me will live without me.Salam to those holding out in prisonmy heart goes out to those who died insideA sparrow’s peck to those who remain,Peace be upon a stone, blue like ocean wavesLike the sky, like mountain goats’ eyes,like flights of pigeons, peace be upon that stone,peace be upon it, upon itupon it, right noware the dreams of a land, hopes of a nationPeace be upon a stone encircled by flowersThat girls’ eyes reach out to embraceSalam to GazaThe refugee camp lacks bread nowBut it is enriched with bloodThe camp lacks land and breadBut now it ascends to the skiesSalam to Gaza’s dovesWhere they flutter they brush at my heartAnd drink of my waterTo honour those who remainSilence outdoes wordsSalam to a pair of eyelashes on a boy’s faceRafah eyelashes wet with roses and tearsSalam to those offering their bodies to coffin-bearersAnd a sparrow’s peck to those who remainWhat can I offer to the cemeteryThe road into itIs the very road we take to depart it like godsThe massacring hand cannot overpowerthe torrents of lifeThe streets, like the sparrows, stand stillThey drink from rain whose free drops come from clouds    floating free in a free skySalam to these treesTheir cry rings louder than my song

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HUSSEIN BARGHOUTHI (1954–2002) was a Palestinian poet, philosophy teacher, songwriter, autobiographer and saint. His body was consumed by leukemia in 2002 during the Second Intifada, but his spirit remains alive in Palestine’s rocks, its light, its almond trees.

SUNEELA MUBAYI is a translator between Arabic, Urdu and English, an independent scholar, and writer of mixed descent, whose interests stand at the juncture where language, the body, and poetry intersect.

Modern Poetry in Translation

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When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded MPT in 1965 they had two principal ambitions: to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain into a wider circulation in English and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. They published poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world. For more than 50 years MPT has continued and widened that founding intent.

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