Ghassan Zaqtan

1954 / Beit Jala / Palestine

The Sleeper's Song

I ascend the seven levels
Of sleep
In sleep you are
An elegy to the departed
An icon of censure

I ascend
The seven levels of sleep
All of them.

Nothing happens
Nothing ends.

I switch on the light
So that the dead
Can see the dream.

Translated by May Jayyusi and Alan Brownjohn
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