Speechless
We are left speechless by man's inhumanity to his fellow man, to his brothers and sisters and their children. This collection includes poems about the Holocaust, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Gaza, terrorism and 9-11, war, and other forms of human violence...
Speechless at Auschwitz
by Ko Un
translation by Michael R. Burch
At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
mountains of shoes
returning, we stared out different windows.
***
Translation of 'This Distant Light' by the Palestinian poet Walid Khazindar
This is my modern English translation of a poem by the Palestinian poet Walid Khazindar.
This Distant Light
by Walid Khazindar
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Bitterly cold,
winter clings to the naked trees.
If only you would free
the bright sparrows
from your fingertips
and unleash a smile— that shy, tentative smile—
from the imprisoned anguish I see.
Sing! Can we not sing
as if we were warm, hand-in-hand,
sheltered by shade from a sweltering sun?
Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
[But before you find yourself beguiled ...
remember, I was just a Palestinian child.]
Czech translation by Václav Z J Pinkava
EPITAF PALESTINSKÉHO DECKA
Život muj živoril, do konce deje.
Pozor kam šlapeš: hrob do šíre zeje.
Turkish translation by Nurgül Yayman
Filistinli bir çocugun mezar yazisi
Something
for the children of the Holocaust and the Palestinian Nakba
Something inescapable is lost—
lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight,
vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars
immeasurable and void.
Something uncapturable is gone—
gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,
scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass
and remembrance.