I Am For Terrorism…
By Nizar Kabbani (*)
.
We are accused of terrorism…
If we defend a rose… a woman…
And an infallible poem…
And the blueness of the sky…
A homeland that has no more…
Water or air…
And no tent… or a she-camel…
Nor black coffee…
.
We are accused of terrorism…
If we courageously defend…
“Balkis’” black hair…
“Maisoon’s” lips…
“Hind”… “Daad”…
Or “Lubna” and “Rabab”…
And a rain of black “kohl”…
Falling like inspiration from eyelashes!!
You shall not find with me…
A secret poem…
A secret language…
Nor a secret book that I imprison behind closed doors…
And I don’t have a poem…
Walking the streets… wearing ”hijab”…

We are accused of terrorism…

If we write about the leftovers of our homeland…
Luxated… disjoined…ragged…
Its stump dispersed…
A homeland searching for its name…
And a people without a name…
A homeland that lost its old great poems…
Except these of “Al-Khansaa”…
A home land that lost its red… blue… or yellow freedom…
A homeland that…
Forbids us to buy a newspaper…
Hear news-casts…
A homeland that denies its birds to chirp…
A homeland…
Whose writers write…
On the wind because of fear…
A homeland…
That is like poetry in our country…
It is of forsaken words…
Extemporaneous…
Imported…
With a foreign face and tongue…
Has no beginning…
No end…
Has no relation with its people… or the land…
Or the deadlock of mankind!!
About a homeland…
Walking to peace negotiations…
Without dignity…
Barefooted..
About a homeland…
Whose men micturated on themselves because of fear…
Only women are left!!
Salt in our eyes…
Salt… on our lips…
Or in our words…
Is it dryness in our souls…
Was inherited from Beni Qahtan??
There is no more a “Mouaawieh” in our nation…
Nor “Abu Sufian”…
No body is left to say (NO)…
To those who surrendered our homes… our land…
Made of our radiant history…
A shop!!
There is no more a poem in our life…
That did not lose its virginity…
In the bed of the sultan…
We are used to ignominy…
What is left of a man…
If he gets used to disgrace??
I look in the book of history…
For “Osama bin Munqiz”…
For “Akbah Bin Nafaa”…
For “Omar”… for “Hamzeh”…
For “Khaled” marching” to Damascus…
For “Al-Mutasim Billah”…
To save our women from savage captivity…
From blazing fires…
I look for the man of the end of time…
But I see only frightened cats in darkness…
Dreaded for their lives…
From the dominion of mice…
Are they plagued with national blindness…
Or colorblindness??

We are accused of terrorism…
If we refuse death…
By the bulldozers of "Israel"…
Digging in our soil…
Our history…Our Gospels…
Our Qur’an…
The remnants of our prophets…
If this is our crime
How beautiful is terrorism…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we refuse our extinction…
By Mongols… Zionists… Barbarians…
If we throw a stone on a window of the Security Council…
Seized by the Czars of our time…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we refuse to…
Extend our hand to…
America…
Against human cultures…
Which is without a culture…
Against human civilization…
Which is without a civilization…
America is a gigantic building…
Without walls…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we refuse an epoch…
In which America became…
Conceited… rich…powerful…
A sworn translator…From Hebrew…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we throw a rose…
To Jerusalem…
To Hebron…
To Gaza…
To Nazareth…
If we carry bread and water…
To the besieged Trojans…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we raise our voices…
Against our isolationist rulers…
Against all those who changed their saddles…
And changed from unionists to hirelings…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we committed the profession of culture…
If we read a book of jurisdiction and politics…
If we call our God…
If we read “Sorat Al-Fateh”…
And listen to a Friday sermon…
We commit terrorism…

We are accused of terrorism…
If we defend our land…
And the dignity of its soil…
If we revolt against the extortion of people…
Our extortion...
If we protect our last palm tree in our desert…
And the last star in our sky…
And the last letters in our names…
And the last drop of milk in our mother’s breasts…
If this is our crime…
How wonderful is terrorism…

I am a terrorist…
If terrorism could save me…
From the immigrants of Russia…
Romania… Hungary…and Poland…
Who settled in Palestine on our shoulders…
To steal the minarets of Jerusalem…
The gate of “Al-Aqsa”…
And ornaments and domes…

I am for terrorism…
If I could liberate Christ…
The Virgin Mary…
and the holy city…
From the Ambassadors of death and devastation…
Yesterday the national street was in our land…
Winning like an Arabian horse…
And our squares were rivers flooding with vigor and pride…
After “Oslo”…
We lost our teeth…
And become a people plagued with deafness and blindness??

I am for terrorism…
If terrorism could liberate my people…
From tyrants and tyranny…
And save men from the savageness of men…

I am for terrorism
If it could save me from Zionist Czars…
And Roman Caesars…

I am for terrorism…
If this new world…
Is equally split between…
America… and “Israel”…

I am for terrorism…
As long as this new world…
Classifies us as wolves…
I am for terrorism…
If the American Congress…
Has the law in its hands…
And decides on reward and punishment…

I am for terrorism…
As long as this new world…
Deeply hates…
The smell of Arabs…

I am for terrorism…
As long as this world…
Wants to slaughter my babies…
And throw them to dogs…
Because all of this…
I want to shout loud and high…
I am for terrorism…
I am for terrorism…
I am for terrorism…
Ana ma'a al irhab

-----------------------------------------
-->Translated by: Adib S. Kawar

(*) Nizar Kabbani (1923-1998) was one of the most influential and best known Arab poets in modern times. He penetrated and captured the hearts and souls of millions of Arabs. During a career that produced fifty volumes of poetry, Kabbani became the Arab world’s greatest love poet. He was a champion of women’s rights, urging women to take control of their lives, bodies, and destinies. A proponent of women’s liberation, he initiated a change in attitudes about sexuality, erotic freedom, and the right of women to celebrate ecstasy. He asserted that freedom of the body was a path to freedom of the spirit for everyone, thereby helping the new generation to erase the guilt, fear, and embarrassment that had been associated with sex. He also strived to change the repressive relationship between the two sexes to one of openness. (Read Kabbani's full biography)
-->This poem originally appeared on worldproutassembly.org
=========

[All Cartoons by © Ben Heine]

Ben Heine is a Belgian political cartoonist, caricaturist and painter born in June 12, 1983, in Abidjan, Ivory coast. He studied art and journalism and currently produces political art relating to day to day international political issues. Ben Heine is mainly known for his anti-war activism.

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