As a part of its continuing effort to share a portion of the literary wealth of Arabic poetry with the English reader, The Arab American News translates a poem by the legendary Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut. 

With the wind blowing and the snow falling around me

I sat in my poetic hut 

and buried my emotional, physical, historical chestnuts,

and went along, waiting.

Oh God…

help me to tell the truth

and face reality

and endure thirst

and hunger

and deprivation

and not to turn down a person in need

and to recover the expenses of hope on hope

One hand cannot clap.

To hell…

Haven’t you had enough applause?

Reconstructing the flower

and invading the gala

are equivalent

My teeth are hard as my sickle

I cover myself with my fields and wheat 

and sleep on my hunger.

My tears are as numerous as my mistakes

and my mistakes are as numerous as my commitments

My courage is as numerous as my weapons

My hesitation is as numerous as my battlefronts 

And my hours of sleep are as numerous as my nightmares

My nightmares are as numerous as my pillows and the 

    vastness of my country

And my country is as vast as my sidewalks and notebooks.

— Translated from Arabic by Ali Harb