VENGANZA
A
veces… deseo
poder encontrarme en un duelo
con el hombre que asesinó a mi padre
y arrasó nuestro hogar
expulsándome
hacia un estrecho país.
Si me hubiera matado
hubiera descansado al fin,
y si hubiera estado preparado
¡habría llevado a cabo mi venganza!
poder encontrarme en un duelo
con el hombre que asesinó a mi padre
y arrasó nuestro hogar
expulsándome
hacia un estrecho país.
Si me hubiera matado
hubiera descansado al fin,
y si hubiera estado preparado
¡habría llevado a cabo mi venganza!
Pero
cuando apareció mi rival
y supe que tenía madre
que estaría esperándole
o un padre que se pondría
la mano derecha
sobre el pecho, en el lugar del corazón
cada vez que su hijo llegara tarde
aunque fuera un cuarto de hora
de la cita de una reunión
ya no le mataría entonces,
aunque pudiera.
y supe que tenía madre
que estaría esperándole
o un padre que se pondría
la mano derecha
sobre el pecho, en el lugar del corazón
cada vez que su hijo llegara tarde
aunque fuera un cuarto de hora
de la cita de una reunión
ya no le mataría entonces,
aunque pudiera.
De
igual manera…
tampoco le asesinaría
si me enterara enseguida
de que tenía hermano o hermanas
que le amaban y que constantemente
tampoco le asesinaría
si me enterara enseguida
de que tenía hermano o hermanas
que le amaban y que constantemente
anhelaban
verle.
O si tuviera una esposa
O si tuviera una esposa
para
darle la bienvenida
y niños que
no podrían soportar su ausencia
y a quienes sus regalos emocionarían.
O si tuviera
y niños que
no podrían soportar su ausencia
y a quienes sus regalos emocionarían.
O si tuviera
amigos
o compañeros
o
vecinos conocidos
o
aliados en la prisión
o
en la habitación de un hospital
o
compañeros de colegio…
preguntando
por él
y
enviándole sus saludos.
Pero
si resultara
que
es una persona en soledad
desgajada
de todo
como
la rama de un árbol
sin
hermanos ni hermanas
sin
esposa ni niños
y
sin familiares ni vecinos ni amigos,
ni colegas ni compañeros,
Entonces,
¿para que añadir más dolor
a
esa soledad?
Ni
el tormento de la muerte
ni
la pena del fallecimiento.
No,
me limitaría
a
ignorarle cuando pasara a su lado
por
la calle, como
si
estuviera convencido
de
que no prestarle atención
era
ya en sí un tipo de venganza.
REVENGE
At
times ... I wish
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into a narrow country.
And if he killed me,
I'd rest at last
and if I were ready -
I would take my revenge!
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into a narrow country.
And if he killed me,
I'd rest at last
and if I were ready -
I would take my revenge!
But
if it came to light,
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who'd put
his right hand over
the heart's place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they'd set -
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who'd put
his right hand over
the heart's place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they'd set -
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.
Likewise
... I
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn't bear his absence
and who his presents thrilled.
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn't bear his absence
and who his presents thrilled.
Or
if he had
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school...
asking about him
and sending him regards.
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school...
asking about him
and sending him regards.
But
if he turned
out to be on his own -
cut off like a branch from a tree -
without mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I'd add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness -
nor the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I'd be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street - as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.
out to be on his own -
cut off like a branch from a tree -
without mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I'd add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness -
nor the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I'd be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street - as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.
(Translated
by Peter Cole, Yahya
Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin).
Taha
Muhammad Ali (Galilee, Palestina, 1931 – Nazareth 2011). Nacido
en Saffuriya, un pueblo arrasado por los israelíes en
1948, huyó
al Líbano a los 17 años y posteriormente se estableció
en
Nazaret. Escritor autodidacta, su poesía, cuyo motivo central
es la
ocupación israelí, goza de gran popularidad especialmente
entre
los árabes-israelíes y en los territorios ocupados. En sus
versos
directos y poderosos se mezcla el árabe clásico con formas
coloquiales. Entre sus poemarios hay que mencionar: El cuarto
y
diez poemas adicionales (1983), Engañando a los criminales
(1989),
Nuevos poemas escogidos, 1971-2005 (2006).
Extraído
de la Antología de los poetas palestinos de la resistencia (Tleo, 2010).
Taha
Muhammad Ali (Galilee, Palestine, 1931 – Nazareth 2011). During
the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 his village suffered from heavy bombing.
His family was able to flee to Lebanon and a year later, Taha
Muhammad Ali returned to Israel, where he settled in Nazareth and
opened a souvenir shop. At this same time he devoted himself to
literature. He taught himself classical Arabic as well as English and
began writing poetry. The first of his four volumes of poetry was
published rather late, when he was fiftytwo. His first book of
stories was published in 2003. His poetry collection »Never Mind:
Twenty Poems and a Story« (2000) is available in English. A major
Palestinian poet, Taha Muhammad Ali is esteemed primarily for his
plainspoken and quietly sophisticated poetry. His poems mainly
concern personal memories juxtaposed~with political events. An
important source of inspiration for his poetry and short stories is
Saffuriya, his childhood village, a place inextricably bound to
memories of life in that time and place. Simple people stand at the
centre of Taha Muhammad Ali’s works. One of his most well-known
poems is »Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower«, dating from 1973, where
the eponymous protagonist is an ordinary man to whom the idea of
revolt against injustice is remote. In »Post-Operative Complications
Following the Extraction of Memory«, also written in 1973, the year
of the Yom Kippur War, the speaker describes himself as »a camel
fleeing the slaughterhouse«. His later poems are increasingly marked
by longing, hope, and bittersweet reminiscence. Taha Muhammad Ali has
a powerful style of writing, using structures based on classical
Arabic poetry. However, he does not yield to embellishment in his
diction, but tends towards simple words and images.
