وَلِيدَةَ المَمَات

وَلِيدَةَ المَمَات
أَسدِلي جَدائِلَ شَعرِكِ، أَيَّتُهَا البلاد،
أَسدِلي سَدادة خصائلِ حُريّتِكِ،
كما تُسدلُ الشمسُ أَهدابَها عند المغيب
وأَرخِي سَلاسِلَ عُنُقِكِ، لِتُزلزِلي حُرّاسَ السُّجُون،
فَعنُقُكِ أشدُّ بأسًا من حديدِ القُيود
التَفي بِخَاصِرَتِكِ، فَهِيَ أَشَدُّ لَهبًا مِن جَحيمِ الضياع،
وأَفْلِتي جَناحَيكِ فَوقَ نَشيجِ أَطفالِكِ،
لِيَشهَدوا، في غيابِكِ، موتَان
اعْصِفي كَريحٍ عاتيةٍ تَقذِفُ زَوَارِقَ البحار
واحْتَضِني مَن بَقِيَ مِن العِباد
أو اَنتشِلي ما تبقّى مِن دِماءِ البِلاد
اَنظُري لِشَهقَةِ أَقمارِكِ،
ولِحَشرَجَةِ الشُّيُوخِ تَحتَ جِدرانِ الانتظار،
غَنِّي بِحُرِّيَّةِ شَعبِكِ، يا أُغنِيَةَ السَّلام،
واكتُبي دُمُوعَ شُعَرائِكِ على جفون الغياب،
يا طِفلَةَ الفَجرِ الأخير… يا وَلِيدَةَ المَمَات.

Born of Death

Unbraid your hair, O homeland,
Let fall the tresses of your freedom,
As the sun lowers its lashes at twilight.

Loosen the chains of your neck, to quake the prison guards,
For your neck is mightier than the iron of shackles.

Twist your waist, for it is more scorching than the hell of loss,
And release your wings over the sobbing of your children,
So they may witness, in your absence, two deaths.

Storm like a violent wind that hurls the vessels of the seas,
And embrace those who remain of the people,
Or salvage what is left of the country’s blood.

Look at the gasping breath of your moons,
And the death-rattle of the elders beneath the walls of waiting.

Sing with the freedom of your people, O song of peace,
And write the tears of your poets upon the eyelids of absence,

O child of the final dawn…
O born of death.

January 2026

Roba Al-Sharif

Roba Al-Sharif is a 17-year-old Palestinian poet who writes beneath the burning sky of Gaza’s war, believing that the pen must not be taken from her people as the land was. She sees poetry as a quiet act of resistance, something that can touch a heart or kindle a small flame within vast darkness—where the reader finds themselves in the first line and wishes never to leave the last.

The featured image, “Guardian of Heritage,” is an artwork by Raghad Al-Sharif.

Born of Death
Translated by Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi