The Will to Life

The Will to Life

Abdellatif El ouarari

 

translated by El Habib Louai

 

If people one day aspire for life
People threw the night in the trash bin,
Lifting the chains on the impossible, and answer fate's call
At dawn, they echoed the difficult melody of Abul Kassim
In two sentences, and said:
To fire, this untrue message,
To the wind, the dream of travel!

      If people one day aspire for life
Blood grows bright in wounds
Between the windows and cracks
Between the edges of winter
Sparing (Carthage) in such a blinded cloud
Overtaking grass hunger in a slope
Grew in nature's bounty
Between black visions
Grew on a slow train to (Kairouan),
Rolled through the valley and the chant of remote lands
Grew in metaphors of (the sons of Ahmed) and the obstinate poets without a problem,
Naked in beds it slept
It distrusted the doll bellies and slave singing
They waved from the vehicles of vigilance.
Because Abul Kasim longed to emerge from the silence
Blood grew between his fingers
Jumped out of the chorus (National Musical Choir)
To the streets of the angry, barefoot people
To a street overtaken by self-esteem
Between the holes
Growing tall. Racing against the daily sun. Mumbling. Screaming in the face of his oppressor, throwing stones!

      If people one day aspired for life
Nobody stops the blood in pots of longing
No fear
No hunger
No festivals (O imminent night)
No barricades
No cracking of ballets
Today turned into a lovely tomorrow
He believed in the safety of sun
He walked to his dream in the Song of Life
He avenged from his tyrannical oppressors
He threw the divan of (Pharaoh) in the waste bin
.........
How green you are Tunisia
Green in our Arabian dream
You beatify the horizon with your passers-by,
You despise the sparks
In blood, your love ascends the sky
                The cherry kernels
                 Perfumed matches!