
Bethlehem from the Church of the Nativity, Palestine, 1900-20 Bethlehem, 1880
Maram Masri (Syria)
Small Sins
Hold my hand
and take me to the heart
for I prefer your home,
oh poetry.
. ~
Fatima Mahmoud (Libya)
What was Not Conceivable
The patrolman
inhabits
the first line.
sucks out the blood of language,
strips the alphabet
of its dots
and tears out
the plumes of speech.
Apamea, Syria, early 20th CE
Women and children draw water from Mary’s well in Nazareth, Palestine, Dec. 7 1946
Fawziyya Abu-Khalid
Two Little Girls
I hang on to the hem of her dress like a child hanging
On to the string of an immovable kite
I climb her braid like a squirrel climbing a hazelnut tree
In the late afternoon we jump from one world to another
we play in the wind
like sparrows that opened the door to the cage
( )
We share one apple and innumerable dreams
We paint a paradise of questions on the face of the desert
We spray each other with the water of the mirage
accompany a fleeting doe
Woman from Nazareth, with traditional costume, 1910 Woman dressed in traditional Thobe under a fig tree, Ramallah, 1920s
Of woman torn
did her skin smell
of zataar her hair of
exploded almonds
between the olive trees
her father lit the match brothers poured the flammable
the women they watched the women they tucked
their sex away under
skirts under secrets
( )
family pride laid
between her thighs
honor in her panties
and no oslo accord
or camp david signing
could free her sex
from its binding
( )
where was he when they found the swelling
of your belly proof of humanity
where was he when they stuck fists up
inside you to prove you loose
Barley harvest, Bethlehem, 1890s
Drawing Water Bethlehem, Palestine, Sept. 2 1938
Fadhila Chabbi
The Blind Goddess
And the blind goddess, when we touched her
like a twinkling of the eye.
On the dry shore her hurried gait...
And in her face when sun and moon quarreled,
and in her step when the sea pecked a drop of life
the water receded—having become pregnant—for a time.
How can the letter be Seeing, Omnipotent.
a peer to the bleated, jealous god.
And in the blind goddess when she dimmed
and the earth came to be
and it was the insolence of the ages.
A Palestinian woman of Jericho with water jar Woman and child, Jerusalem, Palestine, 1920
Mohja Kahf
The First Thing
I left the world of Abraham
jugs sealed with cork,
cooking-grease fires
Sarah’s careful kitchen fires
The horizon is a razor
I moved over, severing
slates of earth,
sediment of ancient seas
The Poetry of Arab Women, edited by Nathalie Handal, 2015
Port of Jaffa
Fishermen at Lake Tiberias, Palestine Tiberias, Galilee, 1900-20
1 comment:
Είναι οι πόθοι μιναρέδες στυλωμένοι
Λάμψεις του μουεζίνη στην κορφή τους
Φωτοβολίδες των κραυγών της οικουμένης
Πυγολαμπίδες σε συρτάρια κορασίδων
Που κατοικούν σε ακρογιαλιές μέσα σ' επαύλεις
Και τρέχουν με ποδήλατα σε κήπους
'Aλλες γυμνές άλλες ημίγυμνες κι άλλες φορώντας
Φορέματα με φραμπαλάδες και μποτίνια
Που στίλβουν την ημέρα και την νύχτα
'Οπως τα στήθη τους την ώρα που βουτάνε
Μες' στον αφρό της θάλασσας.
Αφρός / Ανδρέας Εμπειρίκος / Ενδοχώρα // 1934-1937 / εκδ. ''Το Τετράδιο'' / 1945
.
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