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  • وطن
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وطن

Mansur Rajih

يا صاحبي لا تبتئس
وطن النهار بكرا .. لا يزال
والأرض بكر …
الحب خلف ضلوعنا ينمو
يملأ العمر مقاما آخرا ،
لم تزل في العمر ابعاد القضية
وبقية
عام آخر يكفي أو بعض عام
لنرى عيبان يلبس وجهه
ثم تشرق من ملامح دفئه
ابتسامة
لن يكون البؤس في وطن سعيد
والتاريخ ينبئ قارئيه بما عليهم فعله
انه باد على خد الصبايا :
خضاب
وطن اقام عليه الطلق
هو هذه الأرض اليّمنْ
طوبى من بلاد
فيه الرجال قضوا ..
على ترابه واقفين
والركوع بلا هوية


Mansur Rajih

from The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris (New York: Harper Collins 2010)

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and translators.

Tags:

hope identity nationalism rebirth resilience Yeman

Translations of this Poem

The Fatherland

Do not despair, my friend:
The light that shines on our land
will remain chaste.
We still have time.

Maybe next year, the year after—
it will be enough.
We will see
the new face of Eban

smiling over our lives.
This land is good
and its history teaches us
we must not despair.

This land is happy.
Look, see the girls
painting their cheeks?
This land is continuously giving birth.

Yemen is a happy country,.
the people die standing tall.

Source: from The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris (New York: Harper Collins 2010), version by Mansur Rajih and Ren Powell. Reproduced by kind permission of the translators.

About this poem

This poem, representing Yemen, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Mansur Rajih

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