War’s Echo
By Mohammed AlQudwa
Translated by Tala Al-Banna
I have known war’s echo since I was a child
age five
when a rocket visited the sky of my imagination
How well I know death:
the sound of shrapnel when it pierced my window
and shattered the dreams that were
hung on my wall
I left my poem behind, hoping it would survive
the wreckage
One night, I slept
And went to search my nightmares
for my friends
I wish I didn’t sleep
I was a young man in his twenties when
I discovered the first white in my hair
Was it a strand of gray? Or dust from the house?
Now I’m an old man
saying farewell to his friends
as if we headed to death together
the way we’d lived life together
Goodbye.
I won’t forget that here,
I had friends.
صدى الحرب
أعرف صدى الحرب منذ كنت طفلا
في سن الخامسة
حين زار سماء مخيلتي صاروخ
أعرف الموت جيدا
صوت الشظية حين اخترق نافذتي
وكسّر أحلامي المعلقة على حائطي
تركت قصيدتي علّها تنجو من فوق ركامي
نمت ليلة
خرجت بعدها أفتش في كوابيسي عن الرفاق
ليتني لم أنم
كنت شابًا في العشرين
حين رفعت أول شيبة من رأسي
أكان شيبًا؟ أم أنّه غبار البيت؟
الآن أنا شيخ
أودّع الأصدقاء
كأنّا خضنا الموت سويًا
فقد كنّا لبعضنا حياة
أودعكم
ولن أنسى يوما أنه كان لي هنا رفاق..
Mohammed AlQudwa (@alqudwa.mohammed) is in Gaza, where he has been practicing karate for more than 16 years and is on the Palestinian national team. He started writing in 2020 and published his first novel, Last Destination, in 2022. He also studies software engineering.
Tala Al-Banna was born and grew up in Gaza. She is a law student, writer, and activist in the fields of human rights and the environment. She has a strong passion to discover more about the world of animals and nature in general. She likes to read and also embroiders (tatreez) in her free time as a way to bond with her ancestral home in Jaffa.