Women of My Country

By 
Nadia Tueni
 
Women of my country,
a common light hardens your bodies,
and a common darkness lets them rest
in a soft elegy of change.
A common suffering cracks your lips,
and your eyes have been set by the same unique jeweler.
You reassure mountains,
convince ashes of their own fertility
and tell the land that it will never pass away.
Women of my country,
even in chaos you discover what endures.
 
Translated from the French by Samuel Hazo. 
 
This poem appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 25, Fall 1998.
 
Copyright © 1998 AL JADID MAGAZINE