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 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

“Nothing pleases me,”

Says the traveler on the bus– Not the radio,

Nor the morning papers, not the forts on the hills.

I want to cry.

The driver says: Wait for the arrival to the station

And cry all you want on your own.

A lady says: I, too, nothing pleases me.

I pointed my son to my grave,

So it pleased him and he slept, 

Without bidding me farewell.

The college student says:

Me Neither. Nothing pleases me.

I studied archeology

Without finding identity in the rocks.

Am I really myself?

And the soldier says: Me too.

Nothing pleases me…

I am constantly besieging 

A ghost that besieges me.

The fretful driver says: 

Here we have approached our last station,

Get ready to exit…

They scream: We want what’s beyond the station,

So proceed!

As for me, I say: Drop me off here.

I am like them. Nothing pleases me.

But I’ve grown tired of traveling.