To whom does the homeland belong?
the mercenary killer or the jailer?
o' my lady
or does it belong to
the rain man?
Nazik, Sayyab, and Jawahiri?*
or to the man who steals
bread, the medicine, our homeland?
_
(*) Reference to Three leading Iraqi poets: Badr Shakir
al-Sayyab (1926-1964), Muhammad Mahdi al- Jawahiri
(1900-1997) and Nazik al- Mala’ikah (1923-2007)
Translated from the Arabic by Salih J. Altoma.
This poem appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28, Summer 1999.
Copyright © 1999 AL JADID MAGAZINE