we love life when we find a way to it

Love From Gaza. image Alhoash Gallery, Palestine


And We Love Life

And we steal from the silkworm a thread to build a sky and fence in this departure.
We open the garden gate for the jasmine to step out on the streets as a beautiful day.

We love life if we find a way to it.

And we plant, where we settle, some fast growing plants, and harvest the dead.
We play the flute like the color of the faraway, sketch over the dirt corridor a neigh.
We write our names one stone at a time, O lightning brighten the night.

We love life if we find a way to it...

(translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah)

from Ma'an News:

The first public square named after the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish outside of his homeland was unveiled Tuesday in the French capital with a plaque with the poet's name and a line of his verse: 'We love life when we find a way to it'

According to the Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA, Mayor of Paris Bertrand Dolanoe unveiled the plaque alongside officials from the French Foreign Ministry, ambassadors from several Arab states, UNESCO, and French and Arab artists living in the city. Darwish himself lived in Paris on and off for years, traveling between the French city and Beirut during his years of exile.