"Tahwidah (Lullaby)"

from A State of Seige Mahmoud Darwish (2002)

Program Listing:

If you’ll not be a rain, my love,
then be a tree
drenched in fertility… be a tree
and if you’ll not be a tree, my love,
be a rock
drenched in humidity… be a rock
and if you’ll not be a rock, my love,
be a moon
in the sleep of lovers… be a moon
(This is what a woman told—her son at his funeral)

translated from the Arabic by Mohammed Fairouz (2008)

Tahwidah was commissioned by Alwan for the Arts
for Christine Moore and Kinan Azmeh


The text of the poem
in the Arabic Original

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