To My Mother

The poem To My Mother by Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish (Angry Arab's translation):


I long for the bread of my mother
and the coffee of my mother
and the touch of my mother..
And childhood grows inside me
a day over the chest of a day
And I love my life because
if I die,
I am embarrassed for the tears
of my mother!
Take me, if I came back,
as a scarf for your eyelashes
And cover my bones with grass
baptized by the purity of your heels
and bind me..
with a lock of your hair..
with a thread loose in
the edge of your dress...
Maybe that would make
me god,
God I become..
If I touch the core of your heart!
Place me, if I return,
as fuel in the fire of your oven..
a rope for clothes on your roof
Because I lost the ability to stand
without the prayer of your day
I aged, so please return the stars
of childhood
So that I can join
the baby birds in
the path of return..
to the nest of your waiting!