Adonis (Ali Ahmad Sa’id)

How often you have said:

I have my other homeland,

and your eyes filled with tears,

and your palms filled with the lightning

of its approaching regions.
Have your eyes ever known

that the land recognises

every single passer- by

save your own footsteps,

wherever they cried or rejoiced,

here, as you sang, or there?
Have your eyes ever known

that the land is but one:

dried of udder and entrails?
Have your eyes come to know

that the land is ignorant

of the rites of rejection?
Have your eyes realised

that you are the very land?