"war against water and trees"

Leading Arab poet Adonis, the penname of 72-year-old Syrian-Lebanese writer Ali Ahmed Said Esber, published a poem denouncing the US-led attack on Iraq, which he described as a "war against water and trees" led by invaders who believed in "prophetic missiles."

"Put aside your coffee and drink something else,
And listen to the words of the invaders:
With the blessing of Heaven
We are leading a preventive war
We will bring the water of life
From the rivers Hudson and Thames
And make it flow in the Tigris and Euphrates
"A war against water and trees
Against birds and the faces of children
The fire of cluster bombs spurts from their hands...
"The air moans on this reed called the world
The soil reddens and blackens
In tanks and rocket-launchers
In missiles that become flying whales
In vast volcanoes spitting with their lava
"Are we to believe, oh invaders,
That an invasion can bring prophetic missiles?
That civilization is only born in nuclear waste?"

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Thursday, April 03, 2003 |