TEXT IS EXTRACT FROM O BOD https://www.obodmag.com/issue-4/where-is-mosab-abu-toha
On October 29, 2023, Mosab Abu Toha posted an Instagram video of his family home, now flattened and reduced to rubble, in Beit Lahiya, North Gaza. “That used to be my house,” he says, looking over his shoulder. “There is nothing, there is nothing over there. Not my books. Not my heirlooms. Not the kitchen. Nothing.”
Later that day, Abu Toha posted a screenshot of the poem “What Is Home?” from his debut poetry collection Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear published last year by City Lights. In the caption to the poem, he asks:
“Please save this poem, recite to the people around you and tell them what happened to my home, and the homes of so many other people? Tell them some families were buried under the rubble?”
Writers from around the world have come together to translate “What Is Home?” to allow as many people as possible to save it and recite it.
Read the poem in 23 languages @
https://www.obodmag.com/issue-4/where-is-mosab-abu-toha
الوطن
Example:
هو ظِلُّ الأشجارِ في طريقي إلى المدرسةِ قبل أن تُقتلع.
وهو صورةٌ بالأبيضِ والأسودِ لزفاف جدي وجدتي على الجدار قبل أن يُهدم .
وهو سجادةُ عمي للصلاة تحتها نامت عشرات النملات في ليالي الشتاء، قبل أن تُنهب وتُوضع في متحف.
وهو الفرنٌ تستخدمه أمي لِصُنع الخبز وشوي الدجاج قبل أن يَتَرمّد بيت نا من قنبلة.
وهو المقهى حيثُ أشاهد مباريات كرة القدم وألعب ال…
يقاطعني طفلي: هل يمكن لكلمة من أربعة أحرف أن تَتسع لكل هذا؟
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May Haddad 