America: A Poem [Apologies to Walt Whitman]
Published in Alefyaa
(Iraq ) on 26 January 2007
by Layth al-Sandouk (link to original)
(Iraq ) on 26 January 2007
by Layth al-Sandouk (link to original)
Translated from
by Nicolas Dagher.
Edited by .
Spread like an egg yolk
On the frying pan of the ocean
Who were the cooks that brought you to the East?
On a plate called an aircraft carrier,
Oh you who fried the fat of the rejected [Reference to U.S. plundering Arab lands].
You [America] were forbidden to us
Therefore we ate you [America]
While punch drunk from being slapped in the face.
Your flags are flying, colored red and blue
Like slain whales in the sea
Your flags
Are spread by your soldiers over their tanks
Which, though they are huge,
Appear small like ants.
We were sleeping
When your wolves [troops] howled in our fields
The guards who provoked them ran away [Baathists, Iraqi Army]
Carrying the keys to their locks [their homes]
Hoping to come back after our deaths [of average innocent Iraqis]
To steal from our skulls
Our gold teeth
Oh ... It is useless to feel regret
We are bored from the straw dolls [blowhard politicians]
In the fields and on the plains.
America
Your ships ply the darkness of the seas without medical goggles
Today they swim in our coffee cups [U.S. Ships in the Gulf]
And we are unable to dissolve them with a spoonful of sugar
We used to love you before we ate your eggs [as the occupation began].
And after we ate the eggs, they blew up in our stomachs
They turned out to be bombs.
America
We applauded your tanks
Even though they stuffed our bellies with smoke and dust
We were happy
Running after your metal
Fooling to our eyes as though they were butterflies
Your promises were like rain
They wetted us
And made our feverish bodies cool
But the rain of promises created pools of mud
Which covered us
The only thing left were our bald heads
Implanted in the soil like the air bubbles of those who drowned
Yes
You removed the dictator from our land
But in his place
You planted terrorists in our scalps
America
Our shoulders are sore from holding the rifles
Our eyes are bloodshot from the waiting
For centuries we have been straddling the walls
Hoping the wall itself would shoot over the horizon
We were not looking for [Western] jeans
Nor Viagra
But your president
In our ears poured boiling water [He made promises that hurt Iraqis in the end].
Thinking that our taste will become sweet [That Iraqis would cooperate].
America
We blame you
Because having so much
Didn't prevent you from stepping on our feet
You gluttonous nation
Our feet are stained with mud
And not chocolate
My advice to the fire swallowers
And the ember biters [people boldly seeking change] is
Look at our burned bodies
Before you throw your own onto the fire [Beware of help from outsiders].
On the frying pan of the ocean
Who were the cooks that brought you to the East?
On a plate called an aircraft carrier,
Oh you who fried the fat of the rejected [Reference to U.S. plundering Arab lands].
You [America] were forbidden to us
Therefore we ate you [America]
While punch drunk from being slapped in the face.
Your flags are flying, colored red and blue
Like slain whales in the sea
Your flags
Are spread by your soldiers over their tanks
Which, though they are huge,
Appear small like ants.
We were sleeping
When your wolves [troops] howled in our fields
The guards who provoked them ran away [Baathists, Iraqi Army]
Carrying the keys to their locks [their homes]
Hoping to come back after our deaths [of average innocent Iraqis]
To steal from our skulls
Our gold teeth
Oh ... It is useless to feel regret
We are bored from the straw dolls [blowhard politicians]
In the fields and on the plains.
America
Your ships ply the darkness of the seas without medical goggles
Today they swim in our coffee cups [U.S. Ships in the Gulf]
And we are unable to dissolve them with a spoonful of sugar
We used to love you before we ate your eggs [as the occupation began].
And after we ate the eggs, they blew up in our stomachs
They turned out to be bombs.
America
We applauded your tanks
Even though they stuffed our bellies with smoke and dust
We were happy
Running after your metal
Fooling to our eyes as though they were butterflies
Your promises were like rain
They wetted us
And made our feverish bodies cool
But the rain of promises created pools of mud
Which covered us
The only thing left were our bald heads
Implanted in the soil like the air bubbles of those who drowned
Yes
You removed the dictator from our land
But in his place
You planted terrorists in our scalps
America
Our shoulders are sore from holding the rifles
Our eyes are bloodshot from the waiting
For centuries we have been straddling the walls
Hoping the wall itself would shoot over the horizon
We were not looking for [Western] jeans
Nor Viagra
But your president
In our ears poured boiling water [He made promises that hurt Iraqis in the end].
Thinking that our taste will become sweet [That Iraqis would cooperate].
America
We blame you
Because having so much
Didn't prevent you from stepping on our feet
You gluttonous nation
Our feet are stained with mud
And not chocolate
My advice to the fire swallowers
And the ember biters [people boldly seeking change] is
Look at our burned bodies
Before you throw your own onto the fire [Beware of help from outsiders].