Weddings

Weddings

Mahmoud Darwish Translated by: Denys Johnson-Davies/The Music of Human Flesh. From the war comes a lover to the wedding-day Wearing his first suit And enters The dance floor as a horse Of ardour and carnation And on the string of women's joyful trilling he meets Fatima And to them sing All the trees of places of exile And soft Kerchiefs of mourning The lover made his eyes languid Gave his brown hand to the henna To the scared womanly cotton And on the roof of women's joyful trilling come the planes The planes The planes Snatching the lover from the butterfly's embrace and the Kerchiefs of mourning And the girls sing: You have married You have married all the girls O Mohamed! You have spent the first night High on the roof-tiles of Haifa O Mohamed! O prince of lovers O Mohamed! You have married the trellises of vines The hedge of jasmine O Mohamed! You have married the ladders O Mohamed And you resist O Mohamed And you have married the country O Mohamed! O Mohamed!