Saturday, July 24, 2004

A poem by Iraqi poet `Abdul-Wahab Al-Bayyati (my translation):
And our slogans were like the sky
soaked with the blood of comrades
And we were demanding
in the name of children
and in the name of life
and in the name of Iraq
demanding land for toilers
and salt and bread for the hungy
and my little comrades
-the ripe flowers of tomorrow-
behind the wall are
dying under the whips of tyrants
and in the desolute rooms
and the killers have closed
the curtain on the farce
of inquiry courts, oh comrade.
And our slogans stayed on the road
and in the songs of the youth
of Baghdad, and the mothers
are fluttering in hope and waiting