Live With Dignity

Live with Dignity

By Tarif Youssef Agha

Live with dignity, as humiliation is bitter,

And speak up, as the free can’t be bridled

He who agrees to live under the boot,

Should know that, one day, he will be smashed

Pigs don’t feel happy, but in dirt,

And slaves don’t learn, but with a stick

But the eagles live to soar high,

No one knows the summits of mountains better than them

Those who trust dictators to draw their future,

Should know that dictators don’t draw, but with blood

I swear to those who accept to live in disgrace,

That disgrace, one day, will turn fatal

Live with dignity, and tell the dictator that he is a liar,

Tell him that every time he claims he is acting out of inspiration

And if he claims that he is a Prophet with a Message,

Tell him that criminals don’t receive Prophecies

Neither people who are compared to Nero of Rome,

Nor those who are in love with drinking blood

Don’t anger the people, as if they rise,

They will make epics for the sake of freedom

In the time of revolution, the people become a volcano,

But in the time of peace, they become a gold mine

If they demonstrate, showing their teeth,

Then be sure that they, like lions, are not smiling

And if they crowded the squares, thundering,

Then be sure that the time to lament the dictator is near

It is the day when injustice will go away,

And, also, the day when the dictator will face justice

***

A Poem translation

(Can be shared without permission)

By Tarif Youssef-Agha

An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet

Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’

Friday May 20, 2016, Houston, Texas

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