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The town of Abu 'l-Khasib, near Basra, hometown of Iraqi poet Badr Al-Sayyab
By Mahmoud Darwish Translated by Ahmed Nassef
This poem, by one of the Arab world's greatest living poets, Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, was first published in Arabic on March 29, 2003. The Al Sayyab mentioned in the poem is the late Iraqi poet Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab, one of the founders of the free verse movement in modern Arabic poetry.
Nothing But Iraq (laysa siwa 'l-'Iraq)
I remember Al Sayyab, screaming to the Gulf in vain: Iraq, Iraq, Nothing But Iraq… And no one answers except an echo.* I remember Al Sayyab…In this Sumerian Space A female overcame the sterility of the galaxy, And bequeathed us both the land and exile.
I remember Al Sayyab… Poetry is born in Iraq, Then become an Iraqi, so that you may become a poet my friend!
I remember Al Sayyab… he never found life as he had imagined Between the Tigris and the Euphrates, since he never thought, like Gilgamesh, of the Plant of Immortality. And later he never thought of Resurrection.
I remember Al Sayyab… He takes the Laws from Hamurabi So as to cover his loins and walk towards his tomb. I remember Al Sayyab, as he fell ill with fever and delirium, My brethren were preparing supper for Hulagu’s army** They were the only servants… my own brothers!
I remember Al Sayyab… We did not dream of anything beyond The bare minimum, and we did not hope for more than Two small hands, shaking for our absence.
I remember Al Sayyab… Dead metal workers rise up From graves and manufacture our chains!
I remember Al Sayyab… Poetry is experience and exile, Twins, and we never dreamt for more than a life Like Life, and that we can die the way we want to die:
Iraq, Iraq, Nothing But Iraq
*A reference to Al-Sayyab's poem,"Rain Song", written in exile in Kuwait, in which he writes:
I cry out to the Gulf: "O Gulf, Giver of pearls, shells and death!" And the echo replies, As if lamenting: "O Gulf, Giver of shells and death."
**A reference to Ghengis Khan's grandson, the Mongol conqueror who overtook Baghdad in 1258. Many Arab commentators have been referring to the US/British war on Iraq as a new verison of the Mongol invasion.
