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  • A Window
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A Window

Sami Muhanna

Between the sunrise and me there’s a window.
So I greet my old friends the morning air
and the horizon’s pencilled line. Those clouds
are gossiping about a secret rendezvous.
I say hello to that dear memory.

Between my love and me there’s a window.
I gaze out into Spring through the eyes of
someone who loves flowers, whose dreams
are hindered by the little dreams of flowers –
dreams of loss, dreams of goodbye.

Between God and me there’s a window
and I have named it Galilee.


Sami Muhanna

from A Bird is not a Stone, edited by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving (Glasgow: Freight, 2014)
translated by John Glenday

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and translator.

Tags:

borders solitude unrequited love windows

About this poem

The poem comes from an anthology of contemporary Palestinian poetry, A Bird Is Not a Stone, translated by Scottish poets with the aid of Arabic speakers.

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Sami Muhanna

Sami Muhanna is a poet and lawyer, and President and co-founder of the Palestinian Arab Writers Union in Haifa. He is active in Palestinian political and academic affairs inside Israel.
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