Friday, March 19, 2010 | Dr. TAHER ALWAN
WHERE IS MY BELOVED?
Where is my beloved amongst the noise and the rush?
Where is my beloved, lost, amongst the lights?
Where is my beloved amongst the chaos of words?
Where is my beloved?
Where is my beloved?
Oh world, be kind to my beloved!
My beloved is to be found in the path of strangers
On the face of the sea
On the shadows of the clouds
On the wings of the birds
Flying in a breeze of perfumes
Oh world, why such sorrow on my beloved`s face?
Why did her fingertips grow cold waiting for me for so long?
Where is my beloved?
Why has my beloved`s blossom fallen in the hands of a dark wolf?
Why have my beloved`s candles gone out leaving her to sleep alone?
Why has the night cold surrounded my beloved?
Why hasn`t the moon come to cover my beloved?
Why haven`t the stars come to light the face of my beloved?
My beloved is sleeping, let all the pipes of the world fall silent
Let all the poems and pure words hang like a necklace around my beloved`s neck.
....................
Translated by :j.Tachmintzis
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The Dancer and the War
Saturday, August 23, 2008 | Dr. TAHER ALWAN
(dedicated to the Iraqi dancer Hanaa Abdullah)
She is a woman of the world`s continents
There is no difference between dancing and dancing
The dance is one, the human race is one.
Hanaa comes from the furthest street of Baghdad
In the winter dawn
Carrying her dances and songs
Like blue sparrows
She lets them loose in the days of Baghdad.
She has been waiting a long time for the theatre to light up
She imagines the streets lined with jasmine bushes
And the audiences waiving at her
But the street to the National Theatre is blocked
The jasmine bushes crushed by the tanks
Hanaa stands by the wall of the Theatre
Looking for the lights and the audiences
She dances and dances in the blue horizon
And puts on a silver crown
She dances hajaa, lailat alhinaa, bintul taraf, ursul qaryah
She dances…..dances…..dances
She swirls….swirls…..swirls
The world swirls….swirls…..swirls
The crowds cheer, throw her flowers
She swirls….swirls….with the music and voices
The General stops her and says ‘No dancing, the Theatre closed,
It became a military base’
....................
Translated by :j.Tachmintzis
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Eyes and emotions
Thursday, July 3, 2008 | Dr. TAHER ALWAN

Eyes and emotions
Since years I am waiting for you
Like the sky waiting the birds
Like the sea waiting the waves
Like the waves waiting the shores
I am the moment of love
You are the moment of the beauty
Love and beauty
Where is the time , the history of love ?
Let me learn more
But I learn from your eyes more
Even many people around you
Even others looking to you
Even people have eyes and emotions
Even you are free to fly in your world
But
You are here , where the love flourish in paris , in boyeon , in de pan , in monshaw , in herve
we left our smiles on the old chairs
Where we was under the rain
In the small hotel
We look to the hidden moon
It was our golden mirror
While we wrote our names
Who are the new lovers?
Under endless shiny sky we gave the world our kisses
Our jasmines to the towns and villages
All the people smiled for us
While we are here or their
A way from each others
May be I saw a pretty woman
May be you saw an old friend
But
We are the beginning of love and the end.
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Monument to Freedom
Monday, June 16, 2008 | Dr. TAHER ALWAN
Under the Monument to Freedom
Stands an old man with a child
They came through the North Gate
Drunk water in the summer heat of Bagdad
And contemplated the Monument to Freedom
The child was pale
The old man’s face was worn with age
The moments passed and suddenly
The foreign soldiers came
Stamping their boots and shouting
The child was scared
The old man sheltered under the Monument to Freedom
And looking up cried out:
Oh strange soldiers,
Has freedom been crucified on the Monument to Freedom?
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URUK
| Dr. TAHER ALWAN
Deep from the heart of Uruk
The songs of Sumer can be heard
The night singing
Voices of monks
In the temples of Sumer and Uruk
We were there
We passed through temples, palaces and distant places
Looking for our histories
For our memories
The rockets passed over us
The pages of the night were torn
The tanks landed
The voices of the monks stopped
The small flowers were crushed
Uruk still shines in its winter night
Old clans disappeared
Other clans came
A new dawn arose from the night of beautiful Uruk
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| Dr. TAHER ALWAN
The Hanging Nation
Two or three years passed since I gathered jasmines
To make a necklace for the nation
I thought of the nation like a swing
Or a wet- nurse doing the rounds
I thought of it as a mule or a donkey carrying the foreigners` bags
I thought of it as a father with a long moustache raising his stick to history
I thought of it as a mother doing the rounds with her round bread
A year ago
I saw the nation hanging on the Hanging Bridge
I said its convoy will settle
And its children will crawl
Past the blocked bridges to their schools
I saw the nation before the gates of the burnt Ministries
Thin, raising its arms to heaven
I said the promise of the Founding Fathers will come true
And what the New York Times said will come true
And what CNN said will come true
And what USA Today said will come true
And what the BBC said will come true
It will come true. It will come true
I start feeding the nation words
And giving it speech to drink
We sleep together on the pavement of the revolutions
Covering ourselves with satisfaction
We had enough good will
But the hanging nation is still hanging
And the Founding Fathers teach the nation the rules of hypocrisy
While robbing it as it raises its arms to the heavens
Alone, looking at the empty space
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De Millo
| Dr. TAHER ALWAN

In memory of Sergio Vieira de Millo
( UN Representative in Iraq assassinated in 2003)
Once upon a time of alienation
A woman appeared as if from all the continents
She lived in Brazil, traveled to Hong Kong,
Slept on the plains of Asia
A woman from the mythology of the past
Followed by shadows, music, incense
Welcomed by rice feasts and rituals
She gave birth to boy who belonged to the world
De Millo came to Arachid Street
Followed by barbed wire
And army binoculars
The land was awakened by fear
And slept with ghosts
And the politicians` pile of trash grew bigger
De Millo made his way through the crowds to see for himself
And declared: here is a utopia for those who feel strangers in their own land
He drank many bitter coffees
Looking at the nights of Baghdad he saw
No lovers, no flowers, no love poems of Abi nawas
No poetry of Alrasafi, no Almeidan Square, no cinema lights
De Millo made a map of Iraqi sadness
He swam in the marshy waters
He flew with the geese above it
He marked the borders of suffering
He followed the barbed wire and the binoculars
De Millo came back with a wreath of jasmine
Painted a people`s utopia in the shape of Iraq
De Millo bore the burden under the ruins, fire and bullets.




