Mahmoud Darwish: It is our right to love autumn (From Arabic)

It is our right to love autumn
By Mahmoud Darwish
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me reciting the original Arabic

We too have every right to love this autumn's
Last days and ask "is there room in the field 
For a new fall? Where we can lie like coals?" 
Autumn that downs the leaves in gold. If only
We were fig-leaves, or even neglected plants
To witness seasons' changing, oh if only
We had not said goodbye to the eyes' south
To ask our fathers what they asked themselves 
When they went flying at the points of spears.
Poetry and the Lord's name in hope
Have mercy on us. 
                               We, too, have the right 
To warm the nights of lovely women, talk
Of what cuts short two strangers' night as they
Wait for the north to reach the compass. Autumn.
We have the right to smell the fragrance of
This autumn. The right to ask night for a dream.   
Does a dream sicken as the dreamers do?  
Fall. Autumn. Autumn. Can a people be
Born on the guillotine? We have the right
To meet whatever death we wish to meet. 
Let the earth vanish in an ear of wheat.


The Original:

يحقّ لنا أن نحبّ الخريف
محمود درويش

ونحن، يحِقُّ لَنَا ان نُحِبَّ نهاياتِ هذا الخَريفِ، وَأَنْ نسألهْ
أَفِي الحَقْلِ متَّسِعٌ لِخَريفٍ جَديدٍ، ونحن نمَدِّدُ أجسادَنا فيه فَحْما؟
خريفٌ ينكِّسُ أَوْرَاقَهُ ذَهَباً. ليتنا وَرَقُ التِّين، يَا ليتنا عُشبةٌ مُهمَله
لنَشهَدَ ما الفرقُ بين الفصول. ويا ليتنا لَمْ نوَدِّع جَنُوبَ العيونِ لنَسْأَلَ عَمَّا
تساءل آباؤنا حين طاروا على قِمَّةِ الرُّمْحِ. يَرْحَمُنَا الشِعرُ والبَسْملَهْ
ونحن يحقّ لنا أن نجَفِّفَ ليلَ النِّساءِ الجميلات، أنْ نتَحدَّثَ عمّا
يُقَصِّرُ ليلَ غَريَبيْن ينتظرانِ وصولَ الشَّمال إلى البَوْصَلهْ
خريفٌ. ونحن يحقّ لنا أن نَشُمَّ رَوَائحَ هذا الخريف، وأن نَسْأَلَ الليلَ حُلْما
أَيَمْرَضُ حُلْمٌ كما يَمْرَضُ الحَالِمُون ؟ خريفٌ خريفٌ. أيولَدُ شَعْبٌ على مِقصَلَه
يحقّ لنا أن نموتَ كما نشتهي ان نموت، لتَختبئَ الأرضُ في سُنبُلَه


Wanaḥnu yaḥiqqu lanā ʔan nuḥibba nihāyāti hāḏā l-xarīfi, waʔan nasʔalah
ʔafī l-ḥaqli muttasiʕun lixarīfin jadīdin wanaḥnu numaddidu ʔajsādanā fīhi faḥmā
xarīfun yunakkisu ʔawrāqahū ḏahaban. laytanā waraqu l-tīni, yā laytanā ʕušbatun muhmalah
linašhada mā l-farqu bayna l-fuṣūli, wa-yā laytanā lam nuwaddiʕ janūba l-ʕuyūni linasʔala ʕammā
tasāʔala ʔābāʔunā ḥīna ṭārū ʕalā qimmati l-rumḥi, yarḥamunā l-šiʕru wa-l-basmalah
wanaḥnu yaḥiqqu lanā ʔan nujaffifa layla l-nisāʔi l-jamīlāti, ʔan nataḥaddaṯa ʕammā
yuqaṣṣiru layla ɣarībayni yantaẓirāni wuṣūla l-šamāli ʔilā l-bawṣalah
xarīfun. wanaḥnu yaḥiqqu lanā an našumma rawāʔiḥa hāḏā l-xarīfi, waʔan nasʔala l-layla ḥulmā
ʔa-yamraḍu ḥulmun kamā yamraḍu l-ḥālimūna? xarīfun xarīfun. ʔayūladu šaʕbun ʕalā miqṣalah?
yaḥiqqu lanā ʔan namūta kamā naštahī ʔan namūta, litaxtabiʔa l-ʔarḍu fī sunbulah. 


3 comments:

  1. Thanks very much for your fantastic page : it is a real discovery for me -- I live in Korea, where access to these poems is limited -- certainly, no libraries anywhere near me stock these kinds of books, besides a few very inaccessible scholarly places, and, ordering from Amazon is very expensive. I am very grateful for your pages and your wonderful choices. I found your page due  to your wonderful rendering of "Remember the 6Th June" A poem by Samih Al-Qasim: The End of a Discussion with a Prison Guard. What an incredible poem.
     
    Thanks ! I look forward to more of your esoteric selections.

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  2. Are you reading from the same version you posted? In the recitation (which then carries over to your translation), you read لنشهد ما الفرق when the text written above says لنشهد ما الفرش.

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  3. Oh that's just my typo. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure it doesn't make the line more interesting.

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