Poetry for Palestine

Listen to Nagham reading her poems

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Two awe-inspiring poems by child poet Nagham Sami El-Yaziji
(her names means Tune)

Translation (by Nahida Exiled)

Peace be with you, mercy and blessings
I am poet Nagham Sami El-Yazji
From Gaza,
But my native city is Yaffa
God willing, we will return to Yaffa

* * *

First poem (recited in Palestinian dialect)

I am eight

EIGHT years of bombing and destruction,

Fear and dispossession

I survived three wars

THREE wars

Each is more horrific than the previous

* * *

Is there a little girl, in this entire universe

who ever lived three wars, in such a brief age?

I was asleep, in the arms of mama and baba

Safe, tranquil and serene

Suddenly, they bombed our home

Our home is destroyed

My family were martyred

Mama died

Baba died

* * *
At night, who will embrace me when I hear the bombing?

Who will buy me Ramadan’s lantern?

Who will buy me Eid clothes?

* * *
I don’t want anything from you

I don’t want food, clothes or toys

All I want is safety, tranquility and peace

I want my family

I want my home, my beautiful memories

I want to sleep in serenity, wake up in serenity and play free

O world

O WORLD

Is that too much to ask?

Is that too much for me, a Palestinian child, to ask?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nagham reads her second poem in Classical arabic

I am Naghamu

I am a child

The nectar of my dreams infuses my lungs with life

Love runs in my veins

I embroider my tears in my heart

A dress of sorrow

Swathing me with light of dawn

I am a child

I am Naghamu

* * *
People say, my name is a tune

People say, I am a song, soft and delightful

They didn’t know that phosphorus bombs have ignited our calm nights

They didn’t know that the bombing has created my first revolution

The revolution of my exiled father

The revolution of my childless grandmother

The revolution of our budding childhood

The revolution of our traumatised home

The revolution of our usurped neighbourhood

The revolution of our parched blood

* * *
What is my name?

What is the meaning of my name?

The relevance of my name?

When a nightmare is crushing my lungs

Without food, without a home, without a name

Without hope, without love, without a dream

* * *

What is my sin?

What is my sin? answer me

I, what did I… do?

What did I do?

* * *
Did I commit a crime for loving this universe, O mama?

Is my crime that I fell in love with this universe for a moment, mama?

I don’t adore it any more

How can I adore it without mama, without Muna, without Huda, without Rami?
I am Naghamu

Filed under: poems for Palestine | Tagged: children, love, Palestine, war |