and from the inside in

“From the Eye of the Sun”
O child of the Sun, who comes from the eye of the Sun -
Stretch out your tawny arms to embrace tomorrow’s dawn.
Hold high the crown of your head, which flourishes
Like the freshly watered crops.
And pluck the lyre’s strings:
Strings that fear to be touched
And have not yet returned to the world.
O child of the coming day,
The day born from yesterday’s wounds,
Take up your father’s hammer
And shatter the bonds of ancient decay.
So long as you lie wounded in the streets,
So long as you compose incitements to revolt,
You are no skulker in the back alleys…
Now you write of the coming forth
Of the one who shall return;
As long as the keenness of your vision prevails,
Beat down the old ways with your hammer,
Restrain the assassin’s dagger,
And affix these things into the eye
Of the one who fears the Sun –
O child who is to come.
Qassim Haddad,
Translated by Darius M. Klein
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