Five Sisters

Mohammed Abed AFP

Jawaher, Dina, Samar, Ikram and Tahrir

Killed Monday December 29th by an Israeli air strike in the Jabalia
refugee camp

If you had contemplated the victim's face
And thought it through
You would have remembered your mother
In the gas chamber
You would have been freed from the reason for the rifle
And you would have changed your mind:
this is not the way to find one's identity again.

From: Under Siege

Mahmoud Darwish

Translated by Marjolin de Jager

I say: how is it my concern?
I am a spectator.
He says: no spectators at chasm's door
And no one is neutral here.
And you must choose your part in the end.
So I say: I'm missing the beginning, what's the beginning?

From: I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theatre

Mahmoud Darwish