The Italian translation from Arabic by Sana Darghmouni, appeared in Nazione Indiana on April 13, https://www.nazioneindiana.com/2025/04/13/laltro-volto-della-resistenza/. English translation from Italian by Pina Piccolo. Cover photo and in the article by Yousef el-Qedra.
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It’s here
and everywhere.
In the folds between the streets,
in your weakened step,
and in that look before an unspoken question:
this is hunger.
Hunger is not a beast
but a stranger knocking at your door,
sits at your table,
and impartially shares the air with you.
I see it in the eyes of lurking stones
in the fatuous chirping of birds
and in the reflection of my shadow on the bare wall
as though I were a ghost
digging an escape route under the skin.
A song without melody is hunger,
A dance in the utter void,
poetry written by a body
whose tongue is tied….
34
The tent, a fragile body,
of worn-out canvas is its skin,
slight are its ribs
swaying with every rustle of the wind.
The wind asks no permission,
it penetrates everywhere,
opens the doors onto an infinite void,
snatches the warmth of the moment
leaving behind a trembling silence.
A tent is not a home,
it is but a promise of waiting
and every uprising of the wind
reminds you that you are nothing but a passerby
on a land that does not bear your name.
Then comes the rain
heavy like an ancient fit of melancholy
banging on the tent’s roof
to test its resistance.
It creeps inside,
drawing a map of water spots
on a soil that never dries up.
The wind shakes the tent,
the tent cradles the rain
and the rain washes everything,
except the memory of those who live inside.
So that’s how the tent stands upright,
to testify that fragility
is nothing but the other face of resistance.
…
Yousef el-Qedra is a Palestinian poet born on June 3, 1983 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. He holds a Master’s in Literary Studies from the Institute of Arab Research and Studies in Cairo (2015), and a Bachelor’s in Arabic Language and Media from Al-Azhar University in Gaza (2005).
He worked as a project coordinator for theatre groups at the Culture and Free Thought Association in Khan Yunis between 2006 and 2010. He has published several poetry collections, most notably his 2014 توارى في التأويل and دموعها تبكي الخرائب 2011, in addition to his 2013 trilogy وردة نبتت في النار. His works have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Persian, and he has participated in many international literary events, including the Palestinian-Spanish Forum and the Free Poetry Forum in Cairo.
