by Ahmed M. Saleh
"عبثية المحاولة"
“The futility of effort”
أخذت أجاور هواجسي،
عن الهوية الضائعة
وبين هنا وهناك
لا شيء
سوى أن الجهات تقلصت من حولي؛
لتصير قبراً على قياسِ جثتي
للتغريبة آية
تتلوها النكبةُ من مآتمها
لوريثها الوحيد
في المنافي الباردة
بين هنا وهناك
لطخةٌ مهيبة في وجه الأبد الفارغ
عبثية المحاولة،
منذ حمل سيزيف صخرته،
حتى سقوطها بفعل قذيفة
Adjacent to my obsessions,
About lost identity
And between here and there
nothing
Except that the sides around me shrank;
To become a grave the size of my corpse
For alienation there is a verse
Recited by the Nakba at her funeral
For her only heirs
In cold exile
Between here and there
A grand splatter in the face of the empty infinitude,
The absurdity of effort,
since Sisyphus carrying his boulder
Until its descent by means of a projectile
Ahmed M. Saleh, is a Palestinian from Gaza, living in Belgium but with family in Gaza. They have launched this crowdfunding campaign in an effort to raise funds to ease and/or escape the devastating conditions they are experiencing during the current genocide being committed there by the Israeli government.
You can send funds in solidarity via their campaign here: https://gofund.me/44c3ebcc
