Painting by Ismail Shammout
Oh students of Gaza
teach us from among you
for we have forgotten
teach us how to be men --
for our men have become dough.
Teach us how
between the hands of children
stones become precious diamonds
how a child's bicycle becomes a mine
and a silk ribbon an ambush.
How a pacifier
if it is not seized
is transformed into a knife.
Oh students of Gaza
pay no attention to what we have done.
Don't listen to us.
Strike! Strike!
This is a revolution
of books and pens
so make your lips sing.
Shower us with bravery and pride
and cleanse us of our shamefulness.
Cleanse us.
Don't fear Moses
and don't flatter him.
Stand ready to harvest the olives
for this Zionist Age and delusion
will be driven away
if we hold fast.
Oh obsessed ones of Gaza
a thousand welcomes
to the obsessed
for they shall free us.
The days of political reason
have gone with the past.
So teach us obsession.
Translation into English by Mike Maggio
