An Appreciation Letter to Riad Al-Assaad

On Monday March 25, 2013, the commander of The Free Syrian Army, Riad Al-Assaad, faced an assassination attempt in north-east Syria. He survived, but lost his right leg. I wrote this poem in his honor and courage.

An Appreciation Letter to Riad Al-Assaad

The commander of The Free Syrian army

Oh Riyad, The Homeland is sending you a salute

And The Revolution is considering you a medal at its chest

You are a free man who established a free army

You gathered in it all those who are brave

Your target is to fight the armies of evil

And to defend the people who were forced to flee their homes to live in tents

You turned the Homeland under the criminals to hell

And made its sky forbidden for them

Syria, which the whole world decided to ignore,

And which its butcher and his gang have been slaughtering,

Will not be liberated but by people like you

People who will accept no less than victory or martyrdom

Syria was always your love, and ours

We all have been crazy about it

You sacrificed your leg, so Syria can stand tall

No one dares to such a sacrifice but a tall proud man like you

The leg you lost is more honorable than the dictator’s clergies

More honorable than their beards and their turbans

More honorable than all the dictator’s ministers and leaders

The place where you bled became the address of dignity

You are a real ‘Lion’, not just by name (Assad in Arabic means lion)

Not like that ‘Lion’ who ran away from the Golan as an ostrich

You were a symbol of our Revolution

But, now, you became a significant mark in the history of our heroes

And on the top of all that you became a torch that will be raised up

To eliminate the darkness for the people

A torch which will be transferred by hand from one generation to another

To keep the path of freedom safe and to keep the oppressors scared

And to remind the people that being treated as slaves is not acceptable

And that a victory can not be reached without a sword

Oh Riyad, all words which will praise you, will smell like flowers

All the writers will be honored to dedicate their pens to admire you

Oh Riyad, do not be sad as one leg is enough

To step over the dictator

***

A Poem translation

Tarif Youssef-Agha

An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet

Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’

Sunday March 29, 2013

Houston, Texas

http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry