Читать книгу Unfortunately, It Was Paradise - Mahmoud Darwish - Страница 21

Athens Airport

Athens airport disperses us to other airports. Where can I fight? asks the fighter.

Where can I deliver your child? a pregnant woman shouts back.

Where can I invest my money? asks the officer.

This is none of my business, the intellectual says.

Where did you come from? asks the customs’ official.

And we answer: From the sea!

Where are you going?

To the sea, we answer.

What is your address?

A woman of our group says: My village is the bundle on my back.

We have waited in the Athens airport for years.

A young man marries a girl but they have no place for their wedding night.

He asks: Where can I make love to her?

We laugh and say: This is not the right time for that question.

The analyst says: In order to live, they die by mistake.

The literary man says: Our camp will certainly fall.

What do they want from us?

Athens airport welcomes its visitors without end.

Yet, like the benches in the terminal, we remain, impatiently waiting for the sea.

How many more years longer, O Athens airport?