AN 8.9 RICHTER SCALE POEM FROM DR HANAN AWWAD. BRAVO, MY FRIEND!

BIOGRAPHY HANAN AWWAD

President of Palestinian Pen and was Cultural Advisor to His Excellency Yasser Arafat. Also Cultural Advisor, to the The Governorate of Jerusalem and Member of Palestine National Council

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scholar, writer and poet Hanan Awwad is a Palestinian woman with an extensive firsthand knowledge of the strife-torn history of her people. Dr. Awwad was born in Jerusalem-Palestine; she comes from a notable family of scholars, whose legacy to her has been a strong attachment to her Palestinian homeland, together with an abiding determination to work towards removing the destabilizing features in present-day Arab society. She is a passionate advocate in universal freedoms and Human Rights. As a renowned writer, Dr. Awwad has published several works in poetry, prose, politics and literature. Among her important works: (I write with my blood,1983),(The Bethrothed returns.1988),(I have chosen danger,1988), (Arab Causes in the Fiction of Ghada al-Samman, published also in Arabic), (From behind the Barbed Wire,1993) ,(In the beginning you Palestine), (Episodes of the Seige,Ramallah,2004). Her works were published in many languages,including,French,English,Portugese,Spanish,Italian,Finish,Japanese and other languages.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

Dr.Awwad has often represented Palestine at high-level meetings including Presidents, Ministers and other important institutional representatives. Dr.Awwad was given many national, Arabic and International awards, and received honour certificates and P.H.D of honours from several international universities. She gained a B.A with honours in Arabic language and literature, graduated with a Diploma in literary criticism from al-Azhar university in Cairo, with an M.A in Arabic literature and Humanities from the university of Jerusalem, an M.A from the Institute of Islamic Studies – McGill university-Canada, Post graduate studies in Oxford University, Mcgill university where she obtained her doctorate in literature.

BLOOD EPICEDIUM

HOW DOES A LEADER SLUMBER IN THE DARKNESS OF CAPTIVITY???

I am not aware what to write,
What my pen can endorse,
Or what my inflicted soul can record in this Criminal Age which is chuckled with hatred.
How can the vocabulasry be able to light the candles of the soul which isscratched with the thorns of iniquity?

1

How can my pen outburst to transport portrays that did not exist even in the old legends, and not even in the history crimes which were recorded in letters of
subjugation ?
And how can I converse on the rivers oi blood that leak through the corrodors of the guillotine which was prepared for the towering indivuals who are entangled in a
rising free country? And how can my amnplified voice spring out at a time voice suppression and amputation of limbs?

2

What shall I say to the silent conspiracies?
And wearing of the death attire
Andf the long neck bottle of caustic soda
And an explosion within an explosion

CHILDHOOD THAT PASSES ITS EXILED TIME IN THE BEDS OF FLAME.

3

What shall I say and the cries of torture of women,
The strains of horror
The wails and laments
That transgress all bounds
( long live the resistance).

4

What shall I say and the silence of the Big Powers
Allow the hoses of poison to inflict upon us
Iin a genocide journey?.
How can I confront justice and rights A
And the slogans of the Right of Man?
Security except for the Palestinians???

5

What shall I say to the United Nations
Who assume the slogan of peace for the sake of fomenting war and aggression
Nullifying existence and livelihood
And rending of one"s rights.?

6

What can I say to the frozen criticism in the mortuaries
And patience that is laden with thorns?
What can i SAY AND THE MARTYR IS A NUMBER,
THE WOUNDED IS A NUMBER
AND HOUSES OF DIGNITY ARE A NUMBER?

7

Each one carries his chalice to drink toast the Palestinian blood.- S
Swaying,
Eexaggerating and
Accusing.
8

What shall I say to the calls of the embryos
And the cries of the tortured childhood with the wounds of terrorism?
And how can light pass through the dawn of the outreached,
And love which is blended with misery strewn overr the pastures of time?
What shall I say and barbed wires and thorns entwine the necks of our children?

9

Are we human beings,
or merely a glowing destiny barred from existence?
Do we have right to live,
Or our right is engraved on the tombs of death without shrouds?
The butcher with a towering presence stands with pride in an attire which is not white,
With a jar of black honey and a, tank for burning.
He carries in his hands the remains of childhood
and walks to the end of the tunnel in the road.

THE MOTHERS ARE A TRILL IN THE FAREWELL OF THE CONVOY HEADING TO THE IN THE COURTYARD OF HEAVEN.

10

What can I say and the convoys of the residents have been blown up
Through attempts,meetings and readings without letters.
The urgent yearning of the soul for an item of news
or an interim measure to an item of news.

Dawn is approachging,
The waterfalls of blood are in effervescence
And the United Nations make out of the blood chalice
An amulet ( talisman) for the protection of Israel.

The morning passes and leaves perfidiously,
Then the sun with its scorchiung heat perineates to the lap of the sea,
yearning for peace and security.

The vocabulary travel, The words are assisinated,
The tyrants play havoc in the Palestinian time table,
And then the dignity of the nation over the banquets of gathering, absention, anaesthesia and preparation of the last supper.

How dare the Occupation?
And continues in the journey of extermination.
The eyes watch but without an eye
And to put on the same footing the victim and the executioner.
As if the bodies of the children hung on the guilllotine of the butcher were a mere fable.
Further, the jiff of communication with the nonety is a mere illusion.

As if
As if

HOW DOES A LEADER SLUMBER IN THE DARKNESS OF CAPTIVITY

What does it mean you live at time of death?
Doors open for immigration
Hymns
Whar does it mean when life becomes a memory and a reminiscence
Details
In the darkness of the long night.
What does it mean to be a palestinian?
What does it mean to become a Palestinian?
Or insist that you want to remain Palestiniasn
And your flesh is torn into pieces
Of pale colour
Hung over a guiottine
To be a bird
Insurgent
Or a missing master/ or a master who has missed

WHAT DOES SILENCE PAINTED ON MY BLOOD MEAN?
And the carved decision of my burial
In the Sultans' graves?
What does revolution mean?
What does revolution mean?
And the romantic language of the lovers?
When jasmine wilts?

What does it mean when rifles activate in the hands of men
The men
And the return of the soul?
And the will of blood seek help
Do RESIST
Do RESIST.

It is shame on us to be silent
It is shame on us to forget our spilt blood
Shame on us to barter the blood
At the doors of anyone
It is shame on us to drop out a text which has no orthographic dsigns
IT IS SHAME ON US TO FORGET THE MEN
AND PASS/ RESEMBLANCE OF MEN?

WHO DARES???
WHO DARES???