IK WENS IEDEREEN EEN GELUKKIG EN VREEDZAAM 2013

 Dit is een uitvoering van  'Ahmad al-Arabi' door de zangers Marcel Khalifa, Oumaima Khalil, Reem Telhamy en Bassel Zayed, met het Palestijns Jeugd Orkest van het Edward Said Conservatorium in Bir Zeit. De uitvoering vond plaats in 2009 in Beit Eddine, Libanon.
 Ahmed al-Arabi is een compositie van de Libanese zanger Marcel Khalifa op een gedicht van de Palestijnse dichter Mahmoud Darwish. Darwish schreef het gedicht, naar het schijnt, naar aanleiding van Israels invasie van Libanon in 1982. Ik vond een Engelse vertaling. Die staat hieronder.   
  
'To those hands of zatar (thyme)
and darkened stone,
I voice this cry:
To Ahmad
Forgotten and alone.
The passing clouds have left me
Homeless and unknown,
And only mountains
Dare to hide me
In a barren home.

I emerge once more
From the ancient wounds.
I approach until I see
The details of the land.
I emerge once more
In the year the sea was breached
From the cities of ash,
When I found myself alone.

Ahmad was the sea,
Foaming among the bullets,
A camp that fiercely grew,
Raining thyme and fighters
On us.

'I am Ahmad al Arabi,'
he said:
I am bullets
And oranges
And dreams.'

'I am Ahmad al Arabi
LET THE SIEGE COME!
My body is the fortress,
LET THE SIEGE COME!'

'I am the line of fire
And I will besiege you in turn,
For my breast
Is the shelter for my people.
LET THE SIEGE COME!'

.... Oh Ahmad, born of stone and of thyme,
You say : 'NO!'


...Dying close to my blood
And rising in the wheat...

The birds have willed
Their songs to me,
And I have been gathered
To the heartbeat of the fields...

Go deep into my blood,
Go deep into the bread,
So that we will have
A simple homeland
And a dream of jasmine yet to come...

Ahmad al Arabi,
RESIST!
We will journey
In this struggle
Until we reach the shore
Of bread and waves.
We will die
For the dream of a homeland
And of jasmine yet to come.

Oh Ahmad,
Secret like forests and flame,
Make your face known to us:
Read us your last will.

We will disperse in silence
To step back
That the dead may hear your words,
That the living may know
The features of your face.

Ahmad,
My brother, Ahmad,
We await your hero's death,
When will it be?
When will it be?
When will it be?'