Existing comment:
Spring for Poetry in Takoma Park
My Heart is in the East
My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west–
How can I find savor in food? How shall it be sweet to me?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lies beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain–
Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.
Judah Halevi
A Palm Tree
A palm tree stands in the middle of Rusafa
Born in the West, far from the land of palms
I said to it, "How like me you are, far away and in exile!
In long separation from family and friends
You have sprung from soil in which you are a stranger
And I, like you, am far away from home"
Abd al-Rahman |