I am Adam with Two Edens Lost to me

“I’m the Adam of two Edens lost to me twice
expel me slowly, kill me slowly

with Garcia Lorca
under my olive tree.” - Mahmoud Darwish

My feet are torn,

And homelessness has worn me out.

Park seats have left their marks

on my ribs.

Policemen have followed me

With their suspicious looks.

I drag myself from place to place,

Destitute except for

Day-long memories of a home

That yesterday, only yesterday,

Was mine,

And except for evening dreams

Of my dwelling there again. - Iraqi poet Badr Sahakir Sayyab

" In The Summer

by Nizar Qabbani

In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.


Translated by B. Frangieh And C. Brown




Mahmoud Darwish -
” So we are who we are, as the Mississippi flows,
and what remains from yesterday is still ours –
but the color of the sky has changed.
oh white master,
lord of the horses,
what do you want from those making their way
to the night woods?”
...
“Tamer of horses, teach your horse
to ask forgiveness of nature’s soul
for the way you’ve treated our trees”