I Write the Land by Najwan Darwish

I Write the Land 

I want to write the land,

I want the words

to be the land itself.

But I’m just a statue the Romans carved

and the Arabs forgot.

Colonizers stole my severed hand

and stuck it in a museum.

No matter. I still want to write it –

the land.

My words are everywhere

and silence is my story.

 

(Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid)