Forty Days after my Dad
Forty days after my Dad
Rifaat Youssef-Agha (1920-2014)
Oh my eye, be generous with tears
As the one with the big heart and generosity has gone
Sorrow has left scars on our hearts
And tears have left grooves on our cheeks
If sadness was a vine, we would fill
Baskets of ripe grape, cluster above cluster
We wouldn’t pay him back even if we place
All the flowers of the world on his grave
How great the days of childhood in Dad’s house were
Oh those days, how much we wish you to come back
Oh our house, we immigrated and left you behind
You fulfilled your promises to us, but we betrayed you
***
Today marks forty days since dad left
Forty days during which the tears never left our eyes
With each drop of tear we released
The eyelids bow down in respect to his memory
Oh grave, be gentle with a guest who was,
In his lifetime, called the compassionate
Don’t be hard on him
As his final days and aging were
Oh Burial day, how hard it is on sons when they have to carry
Their parents to the graveyards and return without them
But it is a road everyone will walk
All of us, on that road, are walking
***
A Poem translation
(Can be shared without permission)
By Tarif Youssef-Agha
An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet
Sunday March 9, 2014
Houston, Texas
My Dad passed away in Jeddah, KSA, the afternoon of Wednesday January 29, 2014, 3 days after I arrived from the USA to support him in his illness.
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry