1-We are not an island,
except to whoever sees us from the sea.
2-Wine in half the cup,
the other half was not empty;
it was lost in ecstasy
3-To write
is to breathe unused air.
4-They delighted in sleeping
because of the treasures it lay
between their eyes.
5- I write about love
the way a child draws his impressions of
adulthood.
6-An impossible dream
is kinder than a rampant delusion.
7-The curtain on the window
is an orderly more powerful
than his sultan.
8-A vessel between water and fire,
an enticement for flames.
9-He counted his friends to me
on the fingers of his hand.
Then I realized
that his hand had no fingers.
10-To rule
To dissent
Both seek to grant prosperity to the people
under one power.
11-I am not free to accept.
I am free only to oppose.
12-I see the wind playing with the banner
of this place,
while people go without air.
13-A space crowded with answers.
Everyone is singed with answers.
Answers in every comer,
and in everything
there are questions.
14-He wants to apologize,
not because he was an enemy
but because he revealed himself as one.
15-Pigs are useful too.
They sing about the garbage bins.
16-She is like a state.
She puts on her make-up
and talks to her mirror,
and never listens to people.
17-All this night
is not enough for my dreams.
18-Everyday
we do nothing but confirm the futility
that has been impossible to detect.
19-Usually
I let my memory graze on its own…
To forget the wound and remember the knife.
20-The future
is said to be the opposite of the past,
and we are in an endless present.
21-I have many secrets.
I stud them in my poems
and I toss them in the air of language.
Someone has to expose them.
22-This person I do not know
and who does not know me,
why is he so late in arriving
leaving me
to the loneliness of the sidewalk.
23-The children grind their teeth,
and grind with their hearts.
24-Night,
you are not alone.
There are countless other hermits.
25-I look at them;
they are ready to change their stances
by simply shuffling their shoes.
26-They meet to dialogue
and they exchange points of view
the way they exchange masks.
27-Silence...
is a flagrant accommodation of folly.
28-You will not convince him with words
if he is not convinced by reality.
29-Before you sleep
place a rose on your chest.
30-What is the difference..
between someone blind
and someone who does not want to see.
31-The clicking of my chains fills the place,
I,
who claim freedom.
32-My lip trembles now before a word...
My lip is defeated.
33-Be prepared... the past is coming.

Translated by: Khaled Mattawa