گریز به لِزبُس – شعری از مجید نفیسی

Escape to Lesbos

        By Majid Naficy

In Ma’arra*, the poet Abul ‘Ala*

Was called a death-worthy infidel

And a thousand years after his death

His statue was beheaded.

I witnessed this destruction

And knew it was not a safe place.

So I fled to Turkey

And along with Syrian refugees

Sailed from Izmir to Lesbos

Where the poet Sappho 

Spoke of love.

Now I am in a camp of refugees

With a number on my chest

And a sandwich in my hand.

Oh, black clouds

Passing borders fearlessly

I am neither Odysseus who returns home

Nor Aeneas who makes a homeland in exile.

I have escaped death

And want to remain alive

Like Abul ‘Ala

Who survived through his poetry.

        September 20, 2015

*- A town in Syria.

*- Abul ‘Ala Ma’arri (973-1057) A freethinker, blind  Arab poet.