http://swobodin.fedora-tn.org/archives/94 Libertas inæstimabilis res est Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:12:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 http://swobodin.fedora-tn.org/archives/94#comment-42251 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:36:55 +0000 http://swobodin.fedora-tn.org/archives/94#comment-42251 [...] It’s interesting to see an Aboul-Qacem Echebbi’s poem translated into English. No wonder that Wikipedia makes such an effort. I have already translated the same poem into English and French one year and half ago, but I don’t have the skill of writing in poetic English. In the poem “To the Unfair Tyrant”, the Tunisian young poet (1909-1934) denounces the crimes of the French colonialism, threatens the occupants and predicts a revolt, yet without mentioning them directly. Here’s the text from Wikipedia   To the unfair tyrants… To the lovers of the darkness… To the enemies of life… You’ve made fun of innocent people’s wounds; and your palm covered with their blood You kept walking while you were deforming the charm of existence and growing seeds of sadness in their land   Wait, don’t let the spring, the clearness of the sky and the shine of the morning light fool you… Because the darkness, the thunder rumble and the blowing of the wind are coming toward you from the horizon Beware because there is a fire underneath the ash   Who grows thorns will reap wounds You’ve taken off heads of people and the flowers of hope; and watered the cure of the sand with blood and tears until it was drunk The blood’s river will take you away and you will be burned by the fiery storm. [...] […] It’s interesting to see an Aboul-Qacem Echebbi’s poem translated into English. No wonder that Wikipedia makes such an effort. I have already translated the same poem into English and French one year and half ago, but I don’t have the skill of writing in poetic English. In the poem “To the Unfair Tyrant”, the Tunisian young poet (1909-1934) denounces the crimes of the French colonialism, threatens the occupants and predicts a revolt, yet without mentioning them directly. Here’s the text from Wikipedia   To the unfair tyrants… To the lovers of the darkness… To the enemies of life… You’ve made fun of innocent people’s wounds; and your palm covered with their blood You kept walking while you were deforming the charm of existence and growing seeds of sadness in their land   Wait, don’t let the spring, the clearness of the sky and the shine of the morning light fool you… Because the darkness, the thunder rumble and the blowing of the wind are coming toward you from the horizon Beware because there is a fire underneath the ash   Who grows thorns will reap wounds You’ve taken off heads of people and the flowers of hope; and watered the cure of the sand with blood and tears until it was drunk The blood’s river will take you away and you will be burned by the fiery storm. […]

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