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Poetry

Nobody Can Identify Their Own Remains, and I Am Unable to Identify My Own

By Omar Ziyadeh
Translated from Arabic by Alice S. Yousef
In this excerpt from a longer poem of the same name, Omar Ziyadeh writes a searing elegy of these times from Palestine.
Omar Ziyadeh reads from "Nobody Can Identify Their Own Remains" in the original Arabic
 
 
· c

(1)

Sitting in front of the screen, my thoughts resemble a bombed hospital.
Someone is digging,
they dig inside of me endlessly for the last grave.
Where is the ultimate resting place, the last grave of all happenings?
The martyrs in blue plastic bags,
pour into a mass grave like a river.
there is death . . . a kind of death no one has ever known before:
no doctor, no funeral parlor, no morgue attendant.
A death unlike itself
greater than the dead can bear,
greater than what even death can withstand.
Families from which not even a single mouth survived to say:
we were once here.
Women pregnant with children who will never be born,
wombs open to those who desire to return
now bombed
horses . . . horse-parts,
birds . . . bird-parts,
cats . . . cat-parts,
donkey-drawn carts
no one survived
heading south.
No one will arrive.
Paramedics rush to homes
that died a week ago
without them being known to anybody.

 

(2)

Oh Gaza,
Oh Hiroshima,
that gleams as brightly as animal skin
on the threshold of the past,
Oh Carthage,
violated by the sea,
Oh besieged Troy,
with traitorous horses,
Oh Sarajevo . . .
Oh blood apple,
Don’t go south,
they massacre palm trees there
at the crossings.
Don’t go north,
there are as many remaining body parts as there are eyelashes on your children.
Don’t go east,
the walls are covered in blood
flowing since the beginning of time.
Don’t go west,
they set up the gallows for you there
in the open desert.

Copyright © 2024 Omar Ziyadeh. Translation copyright © 2024 Alice S. Yousef. All rights reserved.

English Arabic (Original)

(1)

Sitting in front of the screen, my thoughts resemble a bombed hospital.
Someone is digging,
they dig inside of me endlessly for the last grave.
Where is the ultimate resting place, the last grave of all happenings?
The martyrs in blue plastic bags,
pour into a mass grave like a river.
there is death . . . a kind of death no one has ever known before:
no doctor, no funeral parlor, no morgue attendant.
A death unlike itself
greater than the dead can bear,
greater than what even death can withstand.
Families from which not even a single mouth survived to say:
we were once here.
Women pregnant with children who will never be born,
wombs open to those who desire to return
now bombed
horses . . . horse-parts,
birds . . . bird-parts,
cats . . . cat-parts,
donkey-drawn carts
no one survived
heading south.
No one will arrive.
Paramedics rush to homes
that died a week ago
without them being known to anybody.

 

(2)

Oh Gaza,
Oh Hiroshima,
that gleams as brightly as animal skin
on the threshold of the past,
Oh Carthage,
violated by the sea,
Oh besieged Troy,
with traitorous horses,
Oh Sarajevo . . .
Oh blood apple,
Don’t go south,
they massacre palm trees there
at the crossings.
Don’t go north,
there are as many remaining body parts as there are eyelashes on your children.
Don’t go east,
the walls are covered in blood
flowing since the beginning of time.
Don’t go west,
they set up the gallows for you there
in the open desert.

(1)

 

أجلس أمام الشاشة وأفكّر مثل مستشفًى تعرّض للقصف.

ثمّة مَنْ يحفر

يحفر… ويحفر داخلي ليجد القبر الأخير.

أين يوجد القبر النهائيّ لكلّ ما يحدث.

شهداءُ في أكياسٍ بلاستيكيّةٍ زرقاء

يتدفّقون كالنهر في مقبرةٍ جماعيّة.

وموت… موتٌ لم يسبق لأحدٍ أن اختبره

لا طبيب، لا جَنّاز، لا عامل مشرحة.

موتٌ لا يشبه الموت.

أكثر ممّا يحتمل الموتى.

أكثر ممّا يحتمل الموت نفسه.

عائلاتٌ لم يَنْجُ حتّى فمٌ واحدٌ منها ليقول

كنّا هناك.

نسوةٌ حبالى بأطفالٍ لن يولدوا أبدا.

أرحامٌ مشرعة

 لمَنْ يريدون العودة

قُصِفَتْ.

خيولٌ… أشلاء خيول،

طيورٌ… أشلاء طيور،

قططٌ… أشلاء قطط،

وعرباتٌ تجرّها الحمير

– ما نجا منها –

نحو الجنوب

لن تصل.

ومسعفون يهرعون إلى بيوتٍ

ماتت منذ أسبوع

لم يسمع بها أحد.

 

(2)

آه يا غزّة،

يا هيروشيما

الّتي تلمع كحيوانٍ مسلوخ

على عتبة الماضي،

يا قرطاجة

المنتهكَة على البحر،

يا طروادة المحاصرة

بالأحصنة الخائنة،

يا سراييفو…

يا تفّاحة الدم،

لا تذهبي إلى الجنوب

فهناك يذبحون النخيل

على المعابر،

لا تذهبي إلى الشمال

فهناك أشلاءٌ بعدد رموش أطفالك.

لا تذهبي إلى الشرق

فهناك دمٌ على الأسوار

يسيل منذ العهود القديمة.

لا تذهبي إلى الغرب

فهناك أعدّوا لك المشانق

والصحراء.

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