The violins, a poem by Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish, was turned into a song by Lebanese Musician Marcel Khalife last year. Khalife and Darwish had a long musical- lyrical partnership that continued after the latter’s death in 2008.

The violins cry with the gypsies going to Andalusia

The violins cry over the Arabs leaving Andalusia

The violins cry for a lost time that won’t return

The violins cry for a lost country that might return

The violins burn forests in that far, far darkness

The violins bloody the horizon and smells my blood in the vein

The violins cry with the gypsies going to Andalusia

The violins cry over the Arabs leaving Andalusia

 

The violins are a horse on a string of delusion and water

The violins are a field of wild lavender that gets far and doesn’t draw near

The violins are a beast, tortured by the nail of a woman that touched it and went away

The violins are an army, building a cemetery from granite and music

The violins are the chaos of hearts gone mad in the wind in the foot of a dancer

The violins are flocks of bird, fleeing an incomplete flag

The violins are the complaint of the wrinkled silk in the night of a lover

The violins are the sound of the faraway wine and its previous desire

The violins sing here and there for revenge against me

The violins search for me everywhere to kill me

The violins cry for the Arabs leaving Andalusia

The violins cry with gypsies going to Andalusia

— Translated from Arabic by Ali Harb