The Boats of Death

The Boats of Death

By Tarif Youssef Agha

Do you know what the boats of death are?

They are the ones which made the sea a graveyard for their passengers

They made their passengers uncertain whether they will see the land again

Or will see the vicious waves attacking, revealing their fangs

Boats which fit tens, end up carrying hundreds

It guarantees that the passengers will sink to the depths

Boats which don’t differentiate between Arabs and foreigners

They bury every unfortunate, regardless of their identity

The one who is seeking to win better future

Will end, on their boards, loosing everything

And the one who is escaping death will be received by death

While he thought the boats will saved him from the massacres back home

The one who escaped from the knives of homicide in his country

Found those boats waiting to slaughter him with the knives of drowning

Some of them are just blooming youngsters who left behind

Families that will keep weeping over them forever

They also left behind Homelands that are so dry of freedom and dignity

But so generous in shedding blood and tears

The bitterest is what makes the people accept bitterness

The bitterest is life under immoral regimes

People found that the boats of death are less evil

Than life in countries ruled by oppressors

Oh boats of death, even you?

No one left who didn’t stab us with his daggers

No serpent was left who didn’t infect us with its poison

And no pig was left who didn’t threaten us with its hooves

Even the mice became of lions on us

They joined the alliance which works on digging our graves

Our martyrs will always be torches to lighten our way

And our countries will keep rising up until freedom is restored

***

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 October 3, 2014, Houston, Texas

The boats of death continue to claim the lives of thousands of illegal immigrants, especially Syrians, who are fleeing the hell of their dictators to end on the bottom of the see.

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