Amjad Nasser
from Selected Poems (Mukhtarat Shi’riyyah)
Exile
Can’t you see?
We haven’t changed much
Maybe we haven’t changed at all:The loaded expressions
The Bedouin accent
The long embrace
The questions about family and livestock
The ringing laugh
The smell of old wood
Wood stored in pens
Still lingering in our clothesCan’t you see?
We haven’t changed much
Maybe we haven’t changed at all:Our squatting sessions
Jumbled washing in front of houses
Children covered with grime
Mint tea in the evening
Refreshing gossip
Contentment with little
Taking revenge
And blood that is thicker than waterAll this,
As if we’re still in Mafraq or Salt
In Kerak or Ramtha
As if we never crossed northern borders
To the big cities
And the coastlines
Where war rages
The sea surges
And the strangers grab each other
By the collar,
Or fire their guns
From balconies
Into the clotheslines.[Beirut, 29.1.1982]
Translated by Ibrahim Muhawi
Page(s) 209-210
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