BROWSE Columns
✕
Zaatar published by Doucey Bruno (Publishing House)
I feel the urge to tell you
that the time has come
that it is time
to tear the seconds out of time
the minutes the hours to remove
the months the years
to lift the borders
of time the commas
I feel the urge to tell you
to dump all these suns
embroidered with silences
to unravel
the seconds of time
it is time to be
time to live
and to free time
***
The border of my country extends
like a bow
on the upper branches
of a pomegranate tree
planted by my father
watered by my mother
a proverb says:
"whoever presents you with
a peeled pomegranate
loves you with a love purer
than the stream".
my father never said I love you
his lips sewn shut by war
he could not speak
but he peeled pomegranates
one pomegranate
a day
in September
and in each
hundreds of seeds
new dawns
***
Under the bombs
I let out my first cry
resistance
by being born
I defied
death
***
Pomegranate trees have bloomed
in what remains of the sky
naked come and slip in
be the dawn open yourself
on my fingers
together let’s deflower the sky
***
L’envie me prend de te dire
que le temps est venu
qu’il est temps
d’arracher les secondes au temps
les minutes les heures d’enlever
les mois les années
de lever les frontières
du temps les virgules
l’envie me prend de te dire
de larguer tous ces soleils
brodés de silences
de découdre
les secondes du temps
il est temps d’être
temps de vivre
et de libérer le temps
***
La frontière de mon pays s’étend
comme un arc
sur les branches supérieures
d’un grenadier
planté par mon père
arrosé par ma mère
un proverbe dit:
« qui te présente une
grenade épluchée
t’aime d’un amour plus pur
que le ruisseau »
mon père ne m’a jamais dit je t’aime
ses lèvres cousues par la guerre
il ne pouvait parler
mais il m’épluchait des grenades
une grenade
par jour
en septembre
dans chacune
des centaines de grains
des aubes nouvelles
***
Sous les bombes
j’ai poussé mon premier cri
résistance
en naissant
j’ai désobéi
à la mort
***
Les grenadiers ont fleuri
dans ce qui me reste de ciel
nue viens te glisser
sois l’aube ouvre-toi
sur mes doigts
ensemble déflorons le ciel
Eponine Howarth is the editor of The Thread. She also regularly comes up with new crazy ideas for columns, print editions, and short film festivals to keep Konstantinos and Vasiliki very busy. In the past, she has suggested getting t-shirts with "I heart LPB" or "LPB is life". Unforunately, the idea didn't make it to the board meeting. Yara Bazzoun was born in Casablanca and studied medicine in Geneva. She is a Swiss-Lebanese-Moroccan newly qualified doctor. Jealous of her sister Joude's success in La Piccioletta Barca, she decided to start writting again using the few English words that she learned while playing Bananagrams with The Thread editor, Eponine.
