Ancient Migrant is one of Charbel Baini's books translated by Mirna Nihme

THE LONG EXILE

-1-
They wrote me on the lips of their children
A poem to their country
Inflamed in fire,
Agony and destruction, 
And on the death bed they said to me:
Oh! Long exile,
Tell them what happened 
With the tears of the timid eyes
Which froze on the childhood cheeks 
And never washed the traces of their farness
-2-
And they said to me:
Our fatigue tired out
And the age plagued
And from the sweat of our prayers
Drank the prayer book
And the houses where we grew up
And built their walls with our hands
And knitted its terraces with our feet
Denied us
And the mother who wept for us 
We hid her pictures in our eyes,
Before the sunset, we sent her letters,
She did not open,
She did not read,
In the fire place in front of her house
She burnt them.
Surely, due to our long absence
She forgot us 
And in her pure heart our love died.
-3-
Oh exile of long days,
Oh exile of misery and exhaustion,
Tell me before you tell them:
What is hidden for me?
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