Samih al-Qasim: Travel Tickets (From Arabic)


Travel Tickets
By Samih al-Qasim
Translated by A.Z. Foreman 

The day I'm killed,
my killer, rifling through my pockets,
will find travel tickets:
One to peace,
one to the fields and the rain,
and one
to the conscience of humankind.

I beg you my dear killer: don't
Ignore them. Don't waste such a thing,
But take and use the tickets. Please
I beg you to go traveling. 



The Original:
تذاكر سفر

وعندما أٌقتَل في يومٍ من الأيام
سيَعثُر القاتل في جيبي
على تذاكِرِ السفر:
واحدة الى السلام
واحدة الى الحقول والمطر
واحدة
الى ضمائر البشر

ارجوك الّا تُهمِل التذاكر
يا قاتلي العزيز
ارجوك ان تسافر

1 comment:

  1. This poem is so beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I absolutely love it. Where do you pick your poems from?

    ReplyDelete