Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The Face of Qana

وجهُ قانا..
شاحبٌ كما وجهُ يسوع
وهواءُ البحرِ في نيسانَ،
أمطارُ دماءٍ ودموع...
دخلوا قانا على أجسادِنا
يرفعون العلمَ النازيَّ في أرضِ الجنوب
ويعيدونَ فصولَ المحرقة..
هتلرٌ أحرقهم في غرفِ الغاز
وجاؤوا بعدهُ كي يحرقونا
هتلرٌ هجّرهم من شرقِ أوروبا
وهم من أرضِنا هجّرونا
هتلرٌ لم يجدِ الوقتَ لكي يمحقَهمْ
ويريحَ الأرضَ منهم..
فأتوا من بعدهِ كي يمحقونا!!
دخلوا قانا كأفواجِ ذئابٍ جائعة..
يشعلونَ النّار في بيتِ المسيح
ويدوسونَ على ثوبِ الحسين
وعلى أرضِ الجنوب الغالي..

قصفوا الحنطةَ والزيتونَ والتبغَ
،وأصواتَ البلابل..
.قصفوا قدموسَ في مركبهِ..
قصفوا البحرَ وأسرابَ النوارس..
قصفوا حتى المشافي والنساءَ المرضعات
وتلاميذَ المدارس.
قصفوا سحرَ الجنوبيّات
واغتالوا بساتينَ العيونِ العسلية!
... ورأينا الدمعَ في جفنِ عليٍّ
وسمعنا صوتهُ وهوَ يصلّي
تحولات أمطارِ سماءٍ دامية..

كشفت قانا الستائر...
ورأينا أمريكا ترتدي معطفَ حاخامٍ يهوديٍّ عتيق
وتقودُ المجزرة.
.تطلقُ النارَ على أطفالنا دونَ سبب..
وعلى زوجاتنا دونَ سبب
وعلى أشجارنا دونَ سبب
وعلى أفكارنا دونَ سبب
فهل الدستورُ في سيّدة العالم.
.بالعبريِّ مكتوبٌ لإذلالِ العرب؟؟
هل على كلِّ رئيسٍ حاكمٍ في أمريكا..
إذا أرادَ الفوزَ في حلمِ الرئاسةِ
قتلَنا، نحنُ العرب؟؟
انتظرنا عربياً واحداً
يسحبُ الخنجرَ من رقبتنا..
انتظرنا هاشمياً واحداً..
انتظرنا قُرشياًَ واحداً..
دونكشوتاًَ واحداً.
.قبضاياً واحداً لم يقطعوا شاربهُ..
انتظرنا خالداً أو طارقاً أو عنتره..
فأكلنا ثرثره...
وشربنا ثرثره..
أرسلوا فاكساً إلينا..
استلمنا نصَّهُ
بعدَ تقديمِ التعازي..
وانتهاءِ المجزرة!

ما الذي تخشاهُ إسرائيلُ من صرخاتنا؟
ما الذي تخشاهُ من "فاكساتنا"؟
فجهادُ "الفاكسِ" من أبسطِ أنواعِ الجهاد..
هوَ نصٌّ واحدٌ نكتبهُ
لجميعِ الشهداءِ الراحلين
وجميع الشهداءِ القادمين..!

ما الذي تخشاهُ إسرائيلُ من ابن المقفّع؟
وجريرٍ.. والفرزدق..؟
ومن الخنساءِ تلقي شعرها عند بابِ المقبره..
ما الذي تخشاهُ من حرقِ الإطارات..؟
وتوقيعِ البيانات؟
وتحطيمِ المتاجر؟
وهي تدري أننا لم نكُن يوماً ملوكَ الحربِ..
بل كنّا ملوكَ الثرثرة..

ما الذي تخشاهُ من قرقعةِ الطبلِ..
ومن شقِّ الملاءات.. ومن لطمِ الخدود؟
ما الذي تخشاهُ من أخبارِ عادٍ وثمود؟؟

نحنُ في غيبوبةٍ قوميةٍ
ما استلمنا منذُ أيامِ الفتوحاتِ بريداً..

نحنُ شعبٌ من عجين
كلّما تزدادُ إسرائيلُ إرهاباً وقتلاً
نحنُ نزدادُ ارتخاءً.. وبرودا..

وطنٌ يزدادُ ضيقاً
لغةٌ قطريةٌ تزدادُ قبحاً
وحدةٌ خضراءُ تزداد انفصالاً
شجرٌ يزدادُ في الصّيف قعوداً..
وحدودٌ كلّما شاءَ الهوى تمحو حدودا..!

كيفَ إسرائيلُ لا تذبحنا؟
كيفَ لا تلغي هشاماً، وزياداً، والرشيدا؟
وبنو تغلبَ مشغولون في نسوانهم..
.وبنو مازنَ مشغولونَ في غلمانهم..
وبنو هاشمَ يرمونَ السّراويلَ على أقدامها..
ويبيحونَ شِفاهاً ونهودا؟؟!

ما الذي تخشاهُ إسرائيلُ من بعضِ العربْ...
بعدما صاروا يهودا؟

نزار قباني لندن 1996


Translation
The face of Qana
Pale, like that of
Jesus
and the sea breeze of April...
Rains of blood.. and
tears..


They entered Qana stepping on our charred
bodies
Raising a Nazi flag
in the lands of the
South
and rehearsing its stormy chapters
Hitler cremated them
in the gas chambers
and they came after him to burn us
Hitler
kicked them out of Eastern Europe
and they kicked us out of our
lands


They entered Qana
Like hungry
wolves
Putting to fire the house of the Messiah
Stepping on
the dress of Hussain
and the dear land of the
South


Blasted Wheat, Olive-trees and Tobacco
and
the melodies of the nightingale
Blasted Cadmus in his
bark
Blasted sea and the gulls
Blasted even
hospitals
even nursing moms
and schoolboys
Blasted
the beauty of the Southern women
and murdered the gardens of the
honeyed eyes


We saw the tears in Ali's eyes
We
heard his voice as he prayed
under the rain of bloody
skies


Who ever will write about the history of
Qana
Will inscribe in his parchments
This was the second
Karbala


Qana unveiled what was hidden
We saw
America
Wearing the old coat of a Jewish Rabbi
Leading the
slaughter
Blasting our children for no reason
Blasting our
wives for no reason
Blasting our trees for no reason
Blasting
our thoughts for no reason
Has it been decreed in her
constitution,
She, America, mistress of the world,
In Hebrew
.. that she should humble us al-Arab?


Has it been decreed
that each time a ruler in America
wants to win the presidency that he
should kill us ..
We al Arab?


We waited for one
Arab to come
pull this thorny prick from our necks
We waited
for single Qureishite
A single Hashemite
A single Don
Quixote
A single local hero, for whom they did not shave the
moustache
We waited for a Khalid .. Tariq .. or
Antara
We were eaten chatter (while engaged in vain talk)
They
sent a fax
We read its text
after paying
tribute
and the end of the slaughter


What does Israel
fear from our cries?
What does she fear from our faxes?
The
Jihad of the fax is the weakest of Jihads
It is a single text we
write
for all the martyrs who left
and all the martyrs those
who will come


What does Israel fear from Ibn
al-Muqaffa'?
Jarir and .. Farazdaq?
And Khansa throwing her
poems at the gates of the cemetery
What does she fear if we burn
tires
Sign communiqués
And destroy shops
And she
knows that we have never been kings of war
But were kings of
chatters


What does Israel fear
from the beating of the
drums
the tearing of clothes
and the scratching of
cheeks
What does she fear
when she hears
the stories of `Ad
and Thamud?

We are in national comma
We did not
receive
Since the times of conquest
a single
mail


We are a people of made of dough
The more
Israel increases in her killing and terrorism
the more we increase in
idleness and coldness

A Smothering Dominion
A regional dialect
that increases in ugliness
and a green union that grows in
isolation
Summer trees, growing barren
And borders .. whenever
the whim strikes
erase other borders


Israel should
slaughter us, and why not?
She should erase Hisham, Ziyad and
ar-Rashid, and why not?
[Why not?] and the Banu Taghlab lusting after
their women
[Why not?] and Banu Mazen lusting after their slave
boys
[Why not?] and Banu Adnan dropping their trousers to their
knees
debating .. necking and .. the lips!

What should
Israel fear from some of al-Arab
When they became
Yehuda??
?
Nizar Qabbani 1996

7 comments:

Sam... said...

Thank you very very much ... for bringing this poem to public.

it has been 10 years since Nizar wrote it,....an dwe are only getting worse and worse...

I do not think i'll live long enough to see that change??!!..

Hmmmm,....

Abufares said...

Alla Yer7am Trabak Ya Nizar

Syrianita said...

Adam i hope you'll enjoy the poem now.

peace and love

deleted said...

I am a Nizar Qabbani fan...a new one, yet I am a fan, thank you for bringing this poem to my attention.

I am a Palestinian living in Israel, sadly. I am less than 15 minutes away from the border with Lebanon and my city had been getting hit with Hizb-allah rockets, like many other cities..and I can also hear the Israeli bombings on Lebanon...I support the Lebanese fighting, same as the Palestinian fighting, 100%. All I can say is..Hang in there my brothers and sisters, hopefully all of this nonsense will be over soon...just when the world wakes up & opens their eyes.
And please, try not to hit my house as much as possible...lol:p

Justice will be done...Hopefully..(with Bush & Blair..you never know:s).

P.S. I'd like to post that poem on my own blog. A credit link to this blog will be set aswell.

Salam.

Abufares said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Abufares said...

30/07/2006
Qana Again!

Remember this day eunuchs of Arabia. The curse of the innocent shall follow you to your oil dampened graves.

As for you, people of Israel, You had no other way to avenge your miserable defeat on the hands of a few thousands warriors in Lebanon but this. Your IDF too will go down in the history books as an army who lost this war but was nevertheless so efficient in finding & killing sleepy women and children.

Anonymous said...

Well , I guess that you think that Israel is like Syria..

During war, mistakes are happening.
Israel apologized for that.
Its more then what hizbolla ever done wheh he killed children in purpese