From the site Arabic Literature (in English).wordpress, Dareen Tatour Palestinian poet under house arrest in Tel Aviv charged with “incitement through social media.”:
Here, the poet Tariq al Haydar translates Tatour’s words into English:
Resist, My People, Resist Them
Resist, my people, resist them.
In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows
And carried the soul in my palm
For an Arab Palestine.
I will not succumb to the “peaceful solution,”
Never lower my flags
Until I evict them from my land.
I cast them aside for a coming time.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the settler’s robbery
And follow the caravan of martyrs.
Shred the disgraceful constitution
Which imposed degradation and humiliation
And deterred us from restoring justice.
They burned blameless children;
As for Hadil, they sniped her in public,
Killed her in broad daylight.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the colonialist’s onslaught.
Pay no mind to his agents among us
Who chain us with the peaceful illusion.
Do not fear doubtful tongues;
The truth in your heart is stronger,
As long as you resist in a land
That has lived through raids and victory.
So Ali called from his grave:
Resist, my rebellious people.
Write me as prose on the agarwood;
My remains have you as a response.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist, my people, resist them
From the site:
https://arablit.org/2016/04/27/the-poem-for-which-dareen-tatours-under-house-arrest-resist-my-people-resist-them/
And this powerful piece
I Will Not Leave My Country
By Dareen Tatour, trans. Ghada Mourad
They signed for me
And turned me into
A file, forgotten
Like the butts of cigarettes
Alienation tore me
I became an immigrant
Inside my own country
I left the pens
Weeping over the sorrows
Of inkwells
They left my right and my dream
On the entrances to
Graves
And yes: one waiting
Laments his luck
While life passes
Besiege me
Kill me, detonate me
Assassinate me, incarcerate me
I will not abandon
My country
Demolish my home
Destroy my years
Burn my trees
Before you I remain
A fighter
Sow death in my land
Rain bombs
Over me
I will not leave
My country
No judaization
No confession
And no enlistment
I was born to struggle
On this earth I am
A proud palm
I’d rather die of thirst and hunger
Than consent to bow
I will never sell my homeland
Deprive me
Of my mother’s lap
Of the morning’s smile
Rob me of meanings
And of paging through books
Deprive me of everything
Deny me
Comfort and sleep
I will stay
I will live
In my country
I will not travel
I will remain in a sunrise
Like a sun
Radiating warmth—resisting
I will not leave
The shadows of my country
If I am killed, unjustly
A child fighter
Will be born
After me
To bring me back to life
I will continue
No and a thousand thousand nos
I will not, will not, I will not, leave. . .
Tatour’s next court hearing is scheduled for 1:30, Sunday, May 8, and there will be a vigil beginning before that in front of the Nazareth court building.
You can follow her case on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FreeDareenTatour/
Ghada Mourad is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and a Schaeffer fellow in literary translation at the University of California, Irvine. She translates from Arabic and French into English. Her translations have appeared in Banipal, the Denver Quarterly, A Gathering of the Tribes, The Missing Slate, Jadaliyya, Transference, among others.
