Variation on a theme from Psalm 137
[slideshare id=114138&doc=baghdad-before-after233&w=425]
I stand by the Tigris and watch the dead
float past the city of Baghdad.
The home of the caliph al-Mansur surrounded by rubble,
tumbled like a broken promise.
I lift my hands to strike the harp.
Hands that struck a shoe against the fallen statue
are withered now and the harp of Ur is broken.
For what shall I sing? To whom?
Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar,
La ilaha illa Allah.
I remember thee, O Baghdad,
In the shadow of Kazimayn.
The streets were clean
but our hearts were in chains.
Leave us now. Our anger is dying.
The muezzin calls takbir and tahlil.
The children now play on the rocks.
Cyber-Psalms
This is a learning process for me. Please feel free to make suggestions about better wording, especially in transcriptions of Arabic. The slideshow is meant to promote reflection but its inclusion does not constitute a necessary endorsement of the viewpoint of the artist. Because of our slow Internet connection, I can only view the images and am not aware of a soundtrack. Please let me know if there is a voiceover.
[...] This is turning into a homage to monotheistic liturgical weirdness. Cyber-Psalm 35 is set in Baghdad and now Iyov gives us some Judeo-juju mumbo-jumbo. And don’t miss [...]
This poem has really moved me – what an accurate rendition of the despair I knew was coming when this war interrupted my first series of writing on the liturgy 5 years ago. (This is the last item I wrote in the series: http://bmd.gx.ca/tribulation.htm)
Did the slide show work? Any audio? No one ever told me.
The slide show worked – but though it too is moving, you have captured an essence in your few words. The sound works too though I find it dissonant.
Thanks for that.