News about No One by Sargon Boulus

Those about whom we hear no news
Those who are remembered by none:
What wind has swept their traces
as if they never were?
My father and the others
Where are they?
Where?

What became of the man
who made beds and bridal chests?
Wood was so sacred to him!

Where is the silent shoemaker?
Hugging the anvil
chewing on his bitter nails?

His cave was full of old shoes
Did they bomb it
with one of those “smart bombs”?

Where is the coppersmith?
Where is the gold tray?

The wheat spike
entangled with the saint’s picture?
The horseshoe on the door?
What became of
Um Yusif
The midwife?
How many crying children did her hands pull
from the warm darkness of the womb
to the bareness of this world
Gone astray in the valleys of their fates
Soldiers fighting in lost
and unjust
wars?

After they had tired
of toiling in the mills of poverty
to fill the tyrant’s silos

Were they embarrassed
by the way this world
was made?

Were they disgusted by those lies?

After wars
After embargos

Beyond hunger
and enemies
Safe from the executioner’s hand

Did they finally go to sleep?
To sleep and
cover themselves
with dust?


[Translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon]