We published part of the this poem in a post about the student BDS movement. It certainly deserves to be posted again in a different context.
From Verse, a poem written by Nizar Qabbani in the wake of the 1967 war:
19
We do not want an angry generation
To plough the sky
To blow up history
To blow up our thoughts.
We want a new generation
That does not forgive mistakes
That does not bend.
We want a generation of giants.20
Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.
Arab children,
Don’t read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a water-melon rind.
Dont read about us,
Dont ape us,
Dont accept us,
Dont accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.
Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat.
Tariq Ali referenced Qabbani's poem on the Guardian website and added, "How happy he would have been to seen his prophecy being fulfilled."
Beautiful.
Oh he knows. He knows.
What a great poem.
I knew Nizar Qabbani and his family. Classy, honest, smart and beautiful people.
I have no doubt that when Nizar was writing this poem, he knew in his heart of hearts that collective AND personal freedom are inevitable. He was a wonderful and optimistic man.
yes yes yes! this reminds me of Amal’s daughter Sara in Mornings in Jenin, an incredible book.
the seeds of Qabbani’s generation have grown AMAZINGLY.
I’m reading Mornings in Jenin now. It’s beautiful, like a jewel.
So many things are breaking toward common sense and dignity.
It is a great time to be alive.
I used to be sad because I missed the sixties, but I think the next couple of decades have the potential to be much better, inshallah — a flowering and maturing of what was started then.
i agree pamela, a flowering and things will never be the same.
about mornings in jenin, yes..a jewel, simply a masterpiece.
Now we know what real de- ligitimization looks like. I love it.