Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Terror of a name


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Keep on calling me "Terrorist"
until I shall become one.

Keep on treating me like a Terrorist
and then I shall behave like one.

Keep on bombing my cities , my schools,
bulldozing my olive trees
and encircling my villages with a wall
then I shall declare Terrorism as legal......
and of national-interest !!


Hang my Saddam and bomb my Beirut
I shall , no less, resist
Bomb my Tripoli and bomb my other Tripoli
bomb Baghdad and Jenin......
I shall resist even more !

Let my sister decide by herself ,
what she wants to do with her veil.....

Let Democracy grow naturally
and do not artificially- feed all our Dictators... .


Call me not Terrorist from out of the cockpit of your "B52"
I shall resist.....
Call me not Terrorist from out of 10 Downing Street.
I shall remind you of Lord Balfour

To call me something else ,
will not make you a better-monster, neither.

Calling me resistance-fighter ,
will not make you a lesser criminal, neither.

You are what you are ......
and calling me a Terrorist, would not change you !!


Give me back my country and my own destiny
and I shall no more be your Terrorist.

Raja Chemayel
18 July 2007

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Raja,
I have now translated 55 of your texts (since May 2007) and this one is my favourite!
It’s beautiful! We should try to get it published somewhere.
It’s really a pleasure to translate this time of text.
Thank you!
Cristina