This poem is shared by Gazan Palestinian poet Basman Aldirawi, also the author of “This Bread Was Born, This Bread Was Killed.”
The Idea Has Failed
By Basman Aldirawi
Translated by Elete N-F & Sarah Lasoye
I sympathize with God a lot:
My heart, too, has been let down.
If we could sit together now
we’d share a cigarette. I’d rest my hand on His shoulder, and
we’d cry together until a light rain fell,
washing Gaza of this cloud of smoke
that does not belong to the sky,
stopping the din that kills another child in Gaza
and the blood that’s spilling from the world’s hand and mouth.
Life will spread across Gaza’s chest, and there will be a resurrection:
Not a wound nor a scar on her.
But scars do not die, ya Allah.
I hear Him cry: “a billion silent, a million killed.”
The sound of weeping rings out
And though I am no obedient worshipper, I pray.
I remember the faces of families and friends,
the streets, the cities, the sea,
the faces of everyone I’ve ever met, every day in Gaza.
I pray and I hear His voice, with every explosion and severed limb, shouting:
The idea has failed
The idea has failed
لقد فشلت الفكرة
اتعاطف مع الله جدا
قلبي مخذول أيضا
لو أستطيع الآن أن نجلس معا
ندخن سيجارة وأربت على كتفه
نبكي معا حتى ينزل المطر خفيفا
يغسل غزة من غيمة دخان لا تنتمي للسماء
يتوقف الصوت الذي يقتل طفلا آخر في غزة
يتوقف دمي عن السيل من يدي العالم وفمه
أن ينفح في صدرها الحياة فتقوم قيامة جديدة
لا جروح فبها ولا ندب
لكن الندب لا تموت يا الله
أسمع نحيب الله “مليار صامت ومليون قاتل”
يرتفع صوت البكاء
ورغم كوني عبد غير طائع، أصلي
أتذكر وجوه كل الأهل والأصدقاء
الشوارع والمدن ووجه البحر
وجوه كل من قابلتهم يوما يوم في غزة
أصلي وأسمع صوت الله مع كل انفجار واشلاء يصرخ
لقد فشلت الفكرة
لقد فشلت الفكرة
Image from Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages.
Basman Aldirawi (also published as Basman Derawi) is a physiotherapist and a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2010. Inspired by an interest in music, movies, and people with special needs, he contributes dozens of stories to the online platform We Are Not Numbers.
Elete is a linguist, critic and translator based in London. Elete is an alumna of the renowned Soho Writers’ Lab, Royal Court Theatre’s Introduction to Theatre Translation group, as well as the Bristol Translates and British Centre for Literary Translation summer schools. Elete has recently worked as part of Royal Court Theatre’s collaboration with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México as a translator and also works as a facilitator with Performing International Plays, Stephen Spender Trust and Foreign Affairs Theatre Company introducing students to creative translation.
Sarah Lasoye is a poet from London. Her work has been featured in Porridge Magazine, Bath Magg, The New Statesman & Poetry London, commissioned by St. Paul’s Cathedral, and featured on BBC Radio 4. Her debut chapbook, Fovea / Ages Ago, was published by Hajar Press in April 2021.