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Friday, April 14, 2006

Poem: Mohammad al Maghout

From the Doorstep to Heaven

Now,
With the sad rain
Drenching my sad face,
I dream of a ladder of dust,
Collected from hunched backs
And hands clinging onto knees,
To mount to highest heaven
And discover
What becomes of our prayers and sighs.
O my beloved,
All the prayers and sighs,
All the laments and cries for help,
Springing from
Millions of lips and hearts,
Through thousands of years and centuries,
Must be gathered somewhere in heaven,
Like clouds.
And maybe
These words of mine
Are now close to those of Jesus.
So let us await the tears of heaven,
O beloved.

Mohammad al Maghout
Translated by Mounah Khouri and Hamid Alger
from, Treasury of Arabic Love. Editor, Farid Bitar. New York: Hippocrene Books.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

we will continue to wait the tears of heaven!!! God bless your dignified soul Mr.Maghout

Anonymous said...

I was sifting through my name and i landed on this beautiful poem by Mohammad al Maghout, edited by me
Farid Bitar, thank you for keeping the book alive " Treasury of Arabic Love", I worked on the book to raise the level of the rich Arabic poetry and to show the American audience that there is beauty in the Arab world, not just violence, I am a poet myself and have produced a CD-Fatoosh, about the struggle of the Palestinians.
I want again to thank you for posting the poem and also to invite you to a reading of SALAAM at Cornelia Cafe in New York City dedicated to the late Poet Mahmoud Darwish, it takes place on January 7th,2009. bet 6-8pm. if you're interested in the event or other stuff that i do please contact me at "fatoosh67@yahoo.com"