poem/Iraq/ in English

Muhsin Al-Ramli

NO to LIBERATING IRAQ from ME

This ink spilled on your papers
is the blood of my country.
This light pouring out of your screens
Is the sparkle in the eyes of the children of Basora.
This one that is sobbing in the darkness of his exile
Is me;
Orphan after you have killed my parents: Tigris and Euphrates;
Widower after you have crucified my soul mate: Iraq
Oh…for you, my land: crucified on the crosses of your desires.

Ay…you, gentlemen of the war
Listen to me:
No to the party of military men on the roof of my house.
No to the executioner that you have proposed
or are going to propose.
No to the bombs of your liberty falling over the heads of my people
No to liberating Iraq from me or me from him.
I am Iraq.

My balm is my writing and I know what I want.
Leave me to myself, to my rebec and your absence.
Go back to your movies behind the ocean.
Leave me what is left
of the minarets, the mausoleums of my ancestors,
of the tombs of my family…
And drink from the cups of petroleum until you are quenched.

Rob the honey from the sulfur and the sand from the desert.
Take with you your clients.

Take to the dictator everything you have bought yourselves
with my blood.
Take what you like and leave,
leave me alone
with the shot-down dreams of my sister,
with palms engulfed in flames on the banks of Mesopotamia,
with the bones of my father
and my afternoon tea.

Leave me alone
with the sad songs of the south
and the slit throats of the north
and the peacocks of the Yasidies.
Leave me alone
to cure the injuries of my land of Iraq
Solo…
like Mary…
solo with my solitude…
My country: crucified on the crosses of your desires.
I will know how to animate his resurrection.

He knows how to be reborn from ash.
Maybe you have forgotten that he is the creator of the Phoenix?
Ay, an inferno, for you gentlemen of the war
Listen to me:
Do not scare the clouds of Baghdad with your planes.
Do not sow soldiers in our garden.
Do not take the hijab from my mother.
No. I scream no to liberating Iraq from me or me from him.
I am Iraq.
Villages have flourished from my coat, and I know what I want.
Leave me to myself, to my family and to your indifference.

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Translated from Spanish to English by Alycia M. Rivard

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*published in the review (BLACK RENAISSANCE NOIRE), Vol7 Nº2, 2007 New York

http://ipsnoticias.net/alaahassan_poesia.pdf