Survivors - Survivors Poem by Ibrahim Nasrallah
Ibrahim Nasrallah (Arabic: إبراهيم نصرالله; born 1954 in Amman, Jordan, in Wihdat refugee camp) is a Jordanian-Palestinian poet, novelist, professor, painter and photographer. He studied in the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) schools and at the UNRWA Teacher Training College in Amman. He taught in Saudi Arabia for 2 years in the Al Qunfudhah region and worked as a journalist between 1978 and 1996. Nasrallah then returned to Jordan and worked at Dostur, Afaq and Hasad newspapers. He is in charge of cultural activities at Darat-al-Funun in Amman. He has published 14 books of poetry, 13 novels and two children's books. In 2009 his novel The Time of White Horses was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
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from the article:
Survivors
We are alive this morning And are still here We cried a lot All night For those who wept and those who were killed But we are certain that hope is harder than despair We are alive Our sadness cannot be seen in the mirror Our names have lost two syllables And the souls of those who dreamt they were among us Three nights ago Are standing there waiting for us At the edge of the wind By the mountain top This is our thousandth night after a thousand After it will come a thousand and one nights The garden flew to the rooftop and the rooftop flew onto the neighbourhood's playground And the neighbourhood and the playground spread their ashes to ashes The envoys passed by and asked the killed and the killer Is it doomsday? Has the wolf made peace with the lamb at last? The sun is passing The moon is late The survival paths are filled with rubble and the mud of shame We will emerge fewer from every war We will emerge fewer from every peace From every freedom, prison, school From every dream Every road leads to us Every road leads to them And every winter and wheat field and plane We are alive this morning And are still here We cried a lot All night For those who wept and those who were killed But we are certain that hope is harder than despair And every time a candle fades We light up