The poem is never silenced

Khalifa
by Ayat al-Ghormezi

Hear me:
You, the elder,
the “good man”, who “safeguards justice”
(so you have always declared),

if I were to make excuses for you,
I, for you,
for the things you have done,
I would only look the fool,
for you would continue in your ways,
and murder us as “traitors”.

Hear me:
Hear us all, for we all demand likewise –
both sects, all Bahrainis:

You must go.
Take His Majesty with you,
and leave your deeds behind.

You, oppressor,
from where do you derive your power,
the power to keep your people down? –
all your people,
even women
even children
even men.
Yet you call for “dialogue”,
even in the midst of your brutality?

No! … No! …
One word: No!
One demand:
Give us back our Bahrain.
Return this country to its people;
to us, its people.

Our Bahrain is ours.

Translated from the Arabic by Ghias Aljundi with Mitchell Albert …source