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POET PROFILE
Samih al-Qasim   Samih al-Qasim
TRANSCRIPT
  In Palestine, poets regain identity through language
RELATED INFORMATION
  Poetry of the Middle East
  Ibis Editions
End of a Talk with a Jailer
by Samih al-Qasim
English

Arabic
audioRealAudioDownload
audioRealAudioDownload

From the narrow window of my small cell,
I see trees that are smiling at me
and rooftops crowded with my family.
And windows weeping and praying for me.
From the narrow window of my small cell--
I can see your big cell!


Tickets
English

Arabic
audioRealAudioDownload
audioRealAudioDownload

The day I'm killed
my killer will find
tickets in my pockets:
One to peace,
one to fields and the rain,
and one
to humanity's conscience.

I beg you--please don't waste them.
I beg you, you who kill me: Go.

Translated from the Arabic by Nazih Kassis. English language translation copyright 2006 by Ibis Editions. Reprinted from "Sadder Than Water" with the permission of Ibis Editions.

POET BIO

Samih al-Qasim was born in 1939 in Zarqa, Jordan, to Palestinian Druze parents from the Galilee. He grew up in the village of Rama in northern Palestine and was a leading figure of the "resistance poets" of the 1950s. He has written over thirty books of poetry, several novels, collections of plays and essays.

Al-Qasim worked as an editor for the Ghad and Ittihad newspapers and is editor-in-chief of the Israeli Arab newspaper Koull El Arab. He is a citizen of Israel and also resides in Rama.

 
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