refugee (2)

I Am Syrian
Youssef Abu Yihea
(Translated by Ghada Alatrash)

I am a Syrian.

Exiled, in and out of my homeland, and

on knife blades with swollen feet I walk.

I am a Syrian: Shiite, Druze, Kurd,

Christian,

and I am Alawite, Sunni, and Circassian.

Syria is my land.

Syria is my identity.

My sect is the scent of my homeland,

the soil after the rain,

and my Syria is my only religion.

I am a son of this land, like the olives

apples pomegranates chicory cacti mint grapes figs ...

So what use are your thrones,

your Arabism,

your poems,

and your elegies?

Will your words bring back my home

and those who were killed

accidentally?

Will they erase tears shed on this soil?

I am a son of that green paradise,

my hometown,

but today, I am dying from hunger and thirst.

Barren tents in Lebanon and Amman are now my refuge,

but no land except my homeland

will nourish me with its grains,

nor will all the clouds

in this universe

quench my thirst.

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