We Are Here Near There - Mahmoud Darwish

We are here near there, thirty doors to a tent.
We are here between pebbles and shadows, a place for a sound, a place for freedom
or any place that has rolled off a mare or scattered out of a calling or a bell.
We are here, soon we will puncture this siege, soon we will liberate a cloud
and depart in ourselves. We are here near there, thirty doors to a wind, thirty has-beens.
We teach you to see us, know us, hear us, touch our blood in peace. We teach you
our salaam. We may or may not love the road to Damascus, Mecca, or Kairouan.
We are here in us. A sky for August, a sea for May, a freedom for a horse,
and we ask of the sea that it haul out the blue circles around the smoke.
We are here near there, thirty shapes and thirty shadows to a star.
 
–Mahmoud Darwish (Fady Joudah, trans.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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