ANGER:

THE FIRE COMING FROM AN ANGRY HEART

Poem for Today - Wednesday - September 24, 2014

TO THE READER

Black tulips in my heart,

flames on my lips:

from which forest did you come to me,

all you crosses of anger?

I have recognized my griefs

and embraced wandering and hunger.

Anger lives in my hands,

anger lives in my mouth

and in the blood of my arteries swims anger.

O reader,

don't expect whispers from me,

or words of ecstasy:

this is my suffering!

A foolish blow in the sand

And another in the clouds.

And is all I am –

Anger, the tinder

Of fire.

(1964)

Mahmud Darwish (1942-2008 )

pages 194-195 in

When the Words Burn,

An Anthology of Modern

Arabic Poetry: 1945-1987,

translated by John Mikhail Asfour