Palestinian children

The Enemy Of The Sun

I may – if you wish- lose my livelihood

I may sell my shirt and bed.

I may work as a stone cutter.

A street sweeper, a porter.

I may clean your stores

Or rummage your garbage for food.

I may lie down hungry,

O Enemy of the sun,

But

I shall not compromise

And to the last pulse in my veins

I shall resist.

You may take the last strip of my land,

Feed my youth to prison cells.

You may plunder my heritage.

You may burn my books, my poems

Or feed my flesh to the dogs.

You may spread a web of terror

On the roofs of my village,

O enemy of the sun

But

I shall not compromise

And to the last pulse in my veins

I shall resist.

You may put the light in my eyes.

You may deprive me of mother’s kisses.

You may curse my father, my people.

You may distort my history.

You may deprive my children of a smile

And of life’s necessities.

You may fool my friends with a borrowed face.

You may build walls of hatred around me.

You may glue may eyes to humiliations,

O enemy of the sun,

But

I shall not compromise

And to the last pulse in my veins

I shall resist.

O enemy of the sun

The decorations are raised at the port,

The ejaculations fill the air,

A glow in the hearts,

And in the horizon

A sail is seen

Challenging the wind

And the depths.

It is Ulysses

Returning home

From the sea of loss.

It is the return of the sun,

Of my exiled ones.

And for her sake, and his swear

I shall not compromise

And to the last pulse in my veins

I shall resist.

Samih Al Qasim