Oh Doctor, your turn is next
By Tarif Youssef Agha
“Oh Doctor (Assad), your turn is next”, they wrote on the walls,
With glowing letters, five years ago
Kids from (the Syrian city of) Daraa, from Syria; my homeland,
They said it on behalf of the people ‘we won’t accept injustice any more’
They wrote it on behalf of people, who were kept in darkness for so long,
On behalf of people who have been oppressed for so long
They said to the world that we will no longer accept humiliation,
And they said to Syria that it is about time to revolt
That we want freedom and dignity before anything else,
We want to get rid of a traitor regime
Each one of those kids equals a thousand men,
They dare to do what was considered unthinkable
Kids from the families of Al-Karrad, Al-Sayasneh and Abi-Zaid,
If I describe them, I say ‘precious pearls’
Or lions’ cubs, who insisted to roar,
Sending a strong message to a criminal regime
They sparked a revolution that history has never seen before,
A revolution that separated the friends from the enemies and unveiled all the liars
Kids who made Syria a crown for all revolutions,
They crowned with it its suffering people
If those who ignited the revolution were kids,
Then no one has any excuse not to join
And those who could hold up to the whole world for five years,
Can cut off a dog’s tail (Assad)
***
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 March 4, 2016, Houston, Texas
A few days ago, came the memorial of the day which ignited the Syrian Revolution. Back on February 27, 2011, the Assad secret police arrested and tortured 18 kids from a middle school in the Southern city of Darra. They were accused of writing wall gratifies on their schools’ walls telling the dictator that his removal from power is next, after that of Tunisia and Egypt.
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry