As though I love you

As though I love you

Mahmoud Darwish Translated by: Denys Johnson-Davies/The Music of Human Flesh. Why are we attempting this voyage? When your eyes have deprived me of the sea And the sands have caught fire in us? Why we are attempting? The words we did not say Drive us away . . . And all countries are mirrors And all mirrors stone, So why we are attempting this voyage? Here they killed you Here they killed me. Here you were the witness of the river and the bloody battle, And the river does not grow weary, Does not talk, Does not feel pain. Every day we have a corpse And on every day the have medals. Here the river stood guard Between us, Making the two banks Twins, Distant, like closeness, from us. Close, like distance, to us. There must be a guard. Oh, there must be a guard between us. As though the waters that separate the two bodies Are the bodies' blood And we here were two banks And we here were two bodies And all countries were mirrors And all mirrors stone. Why we are attempting this voyage? It was as though all the mountains had vanished And as though I love you. The French airport was crowded With goods and people, All the goods legal Except for my body. O . . . O you behind your eyes . . . O my country. I was cleaving To the backwards that advances. I lost my Damascene sword, accused Of defending the soil. My sword had no say in the origin of the Caliphate, So they accused me. They hung me on the tower And went away The repair the guest palace. It is a though I really love you, So I girded a wind at my waist. You were the winds and you wee the wing And I searched the far sky for you And I was leasing the dream - The dream has a form that imitates her - And I was singing in vain To a horse on a tree. And at the end of the earth of the sea brought me back. All the countries are mirrors And all the mirrors stone. Why are we attempting this voyage? You are nearer than my lips And farther from a kiss that does not reach. It is a though I love you. Departure was pursuing me in the streets of the scaffold. - Board, narrow this expanse - And departure hides me in the mouth of the lily. Refashion my time So I know where to die in vain - A day passed without martyrs- refashion my voice for the singer whose picture girls draw has had his voice confiscated by them - A day has passed without poets - And between the two voids I walk to you and in you And am born of a sperm I do not see And play in my corpse and the moon. Why are we attempting this voyage? And all the countries are mirrors And all mirrors stone. Why are we attempting this voyage?