Thursday, November 15, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
"Quartets" by Muhammad Saeed al-'Amoudi
- Is the end truly a return to the past?
- I have misjudged and now I am grieving
- Do we hope that to-morrow we shall reap
- sweet fruit where now we reap our despair?
- Who'll forgive me for being enthralled by
- Enchanting words of eternal love?
- He errs who succumbs to illusions
- And does not heed the lessons of life.
- A world of freedom is a mirage,
- How can the thirsty be satisfied by a mirage?
- The East is a barren space
- How can one take refuge in wasteland
- There's no good in the West, there is
- No good in the East, both are ruined worlds
- The West in its greed is just
- Like the East in its enslavement of people
- Sweet dreams shall with love
- Climb, and not with hatred and misanthropy
- Great is power, if only it could eliminate rancour
- and those who grudge.
- Knowledge is fantastic, it disseminates
- Wisdom, not frivolous thought.
- Sweet are dreams and genuine, if only they
- Where not illusions for the dreamers.
- /translated by Bassam al-Hilu and Alan Brownjohn