Returning to Jaffa

Returning to Jaffa

Mahmoud Darwish Translated by: Denys Johnson-Davies/The Music of Human Flesh. (To the Palestinian martyr Abu 'Ali Ayyad* - on no  particular occasion) Now he departs from us And settles in Jaffa And he knows it stone by stone. Nothing resembles him And songs Imitate his green rendezvous. Now he announces his form – And the pines grow on a gallows. Now he announces his story – And fires grow on a lily. Now he departs from us To settle in Jaffa. And we are far away from him, And Jaffa is suitcases forgotten at an airport, And we are far away from him. We have our pictures in women's pockets, And in the pages of newspapers. We announce our story everyday To win a lock of wind, a kiss of fire. And we are far away from him, Asking him to go to his death. We write an eloquent communiqué about him, Some modern poetry, And go our way to throw off our sorrows at pavement cafés And we protest: We have no home in the city. And we are far away from him, We embrace his murderer at the funeral, We steal from his wound the cotton-wool to shine The medals of patience and of waiting. Now he emerges from us As the earth emerges from a rainy night And the blood pours out of him And the ink pours out of us. And what shall we say to him? Does the memory fall On a dagger When evening is far from Nazareth? Now he is going to it As bombs or an orange, And he does not know the boundary between crimes When they become rights And between justice, And he affirms nothing And he refutes nothing. Now he goes on and leaves us So that we may sometimes object, Sometimes accept. Now he passes on as a martyr And leaves us as a refugees. And he slept And had not taken refuge in tents, Had not taken refuge in harbours, Hadn’t talked, Hadn’t learnt, Hadn’t be a refugee. It is the earth that is a refugee in his wounds And he has brought it back. Do not say: Our father which art in Heaven. Say: Our brother who has taken the earth from us And he returned . . . He is now being put to death And now settles in Jaffa And he knows it stone by stone. Nothing resembles him And songs imitate him, Imitate his green rendezvous So that now the arms of refugees may be raised As winds, as winds. So that now their bodies may explode As morning, as morning. So that the earth may discover the earth within us. * Abu 'Ali Ayyad, a leader of Fateh, was killed in 1971 in Jerash in the fighting between the Palestinians and the Jordanian army.