A Plain Song about the Red Cross

A Plain Song about the Red Cross Mahmoud Darwish (bio) Translated by Salma Harland (bio) Keywords poetry, Mahmoud Darwish, translation, Salma Hayward, fathers, conflict, distress, peace, queries Translated from Arabic by Salma Harland Has everyone, everywhere,Arms that bring forth bread, hope,And a national anthem?Why then, dad, do we eat oak twigsAnd sing, in secret, our love poems?Dad, we're safe and soundIn the arms of the Red Cross. When the flour sacks are emptyThe moon becomes a loaf in my eyes.So why, dad, do we eat oak twigsDipped in crumbs and yellow cheeseIn the stores of the Red Cross? Dad, will the olive groves protect usWhen it rains?Will the trees make up for fire?Will moonlight melt the snowOr burn up the night's ghosts?I ask a million questionsAnd see stony silence in your eyes.Answer me, dad. Are you my dadOr have I become a son of the Red Cross? Dad, do flowers growIn the shade of the Cross?Does the nightingale sing?Why did they raze my small house?Why, dad, do you call for me and go on callingWhenever I dream of the sweets and raisinsIn the stores of the Red Cross? End Page 11 They have denied me the swings of daytime,They kneaded my bread with mud, my eyelashes with dust.They took away my rocking horse,They made me carry burdens from my father's back,They made me carry the night like an eternity.Oh, who has exploded me in an instant into a stream of fire?Oh, who has robbed me of the dove's natureUnder the flags of the Red Cross? End Page 12 Mahmoud Darwish mahmoud darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who gave voice to the struggles of the Palestinian people. Considered Palestine's most eminent poet, Darwish published his first collection of poems, Leaves of Olives, in 1964, when he was twenty-two. He then went on to publish thirty books of poetry and eight books of prose, amassing numerous international awards and honors. His works include In the Presence of Absence, Mural, The Butterfly's Burden, and A River Dies of Thirst. "A Plain Song about the Red Cross" was first published in A Lover from Palestine (1966). Salma Harland salma harland is a British-Egyptian literary translator who works between Arabic and English. She was a 2022 Travel Fellow with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA); a recipient of one of the Dutch Foundation for Literature's 2023 Translation Grants; and a longlistee for the 2022–23 John Dryden Translation Competition. Her critical writings and translations have appeared in literary journals and magazines such as The Massachusetts Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, ArabLit Quarterly, and Poetry London and in anthologies with the British National Centre for Writing and Honna-Elles Feminist Publishing House. Copyright © 2024 The Massachusetts Review, Inc