BIO
Samih Masoud is a poet, writer, and researcher. He was born in Haifa, Palestine, in 1938. He holds a Ph.D. degree in economics. Masoud is a Member of the Jordanian Writers Association and is the chairman of the Canadian Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMESC) in Montréal. He has published a poetry collection in Arabic titled The Other Face of Days and another collection in English titled Haifa and other Poems, translated by Nizar Sartawi and published by Inner Child Press, as well as a novel titled Haifa…Burqa a Search for Roots, which was translated by Bassam Abu- Ghazalah and published by Inner Child Press. In addition, he published An Encyclopedia of Economics in two volumes and 16 other Books in the field of economics.
For Whom The Bell Tolls? (1)
I am here in
your ancient house
watching the graffiti and papers
from the days of your youth
Tell me
For whom do you think
the bells toll
in Oak Park? (2)
For you or her?
You are here
Maria is here
She passes hurriedly with a shy
eye
a red band on
her loosened hair
matching her complexion
and saddles
swaggering around her
lighting the stars
Behold, I hear her voice
ringing aloud
she sings Hallelujah
in her melodious voice
Here I see Lorca
passing by her
with bleeding feet
I follow him
from one street to another
as he rides on the saddle
of River Forest (3)
At the sliding of
Harlem Avenue (4)
he vanishes and disappears
and the bleeding moon
comes into view once and again and disappears
vanishes in the shadow and disappears
and then appears again.
…
I leave it now
I go back again
to your home in the same place
drawn by your heavy bells
And I ask the question
all over again
For whom The Bells Toll?
For you?
For him?
For her?
For me?
Who is shrouded in deathly silence
at sunset?
I am Here
Haifa (5)
is here
I am here
The sea gathers us
hand in hand
with the almond
the olive
and the moon above
…
Haifa is here
I am here
I come to you today
as a pilgrim
…
For sixty years
I’ve waited for this day
Sixty years have passed
till my hair turned grey.
Haifa
O my eternal love
Lo! I come back to you again
on the wings of clouds
Lo! I'm here with you
I tuck my heart into your beach
and forget the remote exiles
I spell every part of you
the sea, the waves, the wind and the trees
the dew's whispers in the morning
the winter spouts
and mirrors hanging on the wings of the wind
laden with tapes of scenic memories
that bring the heartbeats back to the heart in the crowded life
and take me back to the past
In them I see all that I want to see
the quivering of my bygone days
sites loosened from the prophets' faces
around which I go
morning and evening
O my city
Whose tresses rise akin to yours above the passageways of heaven,
and a tender bosom wherefrom the threads of light emerge?
O my city
Whenever I come to you, my pride and passion soar
I go into your mirrors as your waves wish me to
Never do I forget where my home was
I bear it as a tattoo in the eye along the paths of my diaspora
When I get there I drop my face on its thresholds
I kiss it and go around it seven times and more
From hidden nooks I gather the relics my mother left
laden with the sweetest memories
I breathe in the breeze of life
In its surroundings I hear my mother's melodious voice trembling
It never loses me
7 It follows me
awakens me
I see my mother
hugging me with her large bright eyes
hiding me in her eyes
her smile emerging as wide as the space
Here mother quivered on an olden day
And I started crawling
Here I saw her
I spelled her face with love and affection
Lo! I've come to my house again
after years
and years
It is my joy
my desired passion
My heart flutters around it
goes deep into sorrows
I feel in its odor all that has passed
I go back
putting together the faces of those who had been here
and then were lost in the paths of humiliation
I weave sails
to extend for the them in the whole place
With these I fill my dreams and bring them back
to the lap of Haifa
with the steps of a wild wind
that lingers not.
(1) This is the title of Ernest Hemingway's novel, published in 1940, which is based on his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The protagonist, Robert Jordan, is an American
who fights with Spanish soldiers for the Republicans.
(2) Oak Park is a village adjacent to the western side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States.
(3) River Forest is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States.
(4) Harlem Avenue is a major street in Chicago.
(5) Poet’s place of birth from which he was displaced by force only to return sixty years later, but as a foreigner.
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