Flood in the Land of Pharaohs

I recited selected verses of this poem in front of live audience in the Arab American Cultural Center and Ranoush Café (Houston),

celebrating the Freedom Victory in Egypt.

In order not to forget the martyrs of the Egyptian Uprising, January 2011

Flood in the country of the Pharaohs

Another Oppressor has left

Oh, Ruler of the Sphinx and Pyramid

Of you, the Sphinx got bored and the Pyramid got sick

The Nile got disgusted with you

And the homeland feels sorry it gave birth to you

As you, in the body of the homeland,

Became as a tumor

And, staying in power forever,

Definitely is a sign of the injustice

Al-Kawakibi (A late famous Syrian political thinker) included you with tyrants

And also said that the tyrant will always be hungry (For more power)

He also said that you had gotten addicted to enslaving and robbing

And that you are ill and need regular treatment

***

The folks today are flooding the streets

Knocking at the door of freedom

They will not accept any solution,

That will not throw you to the street

Who blames them after you ignored them for generations?

Pretending that you were not hearing

If you were able to hear the hearts

You could hear them cursing you in the churches and mosques

With one hand, you took the loaf of bread from them

With the other, you were always oppressing them

If the folks were asked ‘What made you explosive?’

They say ‘Bread, dignity and pain’

And if the dictator was asked who decorated you as a pharaoh?

He says no body stopped me

With iron and fire, you dealt with the folks

Meanwhile, you bowed to the orders of your masters

You pleased your masters, and the masters of your masters

But left your folks sleeping hungry

Have you ever asked yourself

‘What would you do if hungry folks walk to you?’

Have you forgotten that if the folks get angry

Then their anger becomes like a sharp sword

If the folks revolt, they become a volcano

Who, but a crazy, dares to confront a volcano?

If you see the waves of lava getting closer,

So hurry up to the closest airplane!

***

Oh inspired president, if you really were inspired

You would not be greedy for the throne

And you would not spend thirty years

Holding it with your fangs and incisors

The throne which you purchased at a cheap price

You ended selling your folks and brothers in order to keep it

The wall of disgrace you used to stab

It is time for you to pay the bill for it and for the tears it caused

The matter of your treason doesn’t need a proof

It shines as the light of the sun

And, instead of planting dignity and chivalry,

You always planted shame

You pulled back the homeland into the dark ages

You turned it into private property and farms for your family

And as the popular proverb says

“You are neither good for the vinegar, nor for the mustard”

But, God is the witness; you have never broke the law of dictators

As shedding blood is an icon of all dictators’ nature

Suppressing people, in your dictionary, is a profession

Performed by tanks and cannons

Everything you have is for sale

The decisions are inventories, and the bloods are trades

Nizar (Nizar Kabbani: a late famous Syrian poet) portrayed your type as butchers

It is the most accurate interpretation that any ear has ever heard

And the photos of your ugly faces everywhere is a tradition

Even the stamps were not spared from it

And the inheritance of the throne by the sons is a habit

Repeating it is still popular among you all

In the lines for voting

There has never been a challenger to you

In front of the boxes, you did not leave the citizens

A choice but to vote for you or for you to vote

But also, at the same time, you will not violate the destiny of the dictators

As everyone of you has to pay the price of your behaviors and horrors

So just as you are great in whipping the folks

The folks are great in punishing their whippers

***

And as the folks have weaknesses

You oppressors also have weaknesses

Don’t be over confident that it is you who has the guns today

And that the citizens are unarmed with their hands up

As the arms may switch sides tomorrow

Only God knows what the citizen will then do with you

Torturing the folks will not pass without a punishment

Your hands, after your fingers, will be broken (For the crimes you committed)

When the revolution starts, the oppressors have one of two Ends

Two Ends, but in fact without a big difference

The Romanian End or the Tunisian one

This makes a lesson of you, and with that, you are lost

And what happened in Thiamine square is past

It left the square of the present tense

And if you think Al-Balttajia (Your thugs) will help you

Then it is time for you now to redo your calculations

As its time has also passed

Don’t you see cameras, everywhere, recording the most precise events?

Don’t you see that you live outside time?

That you live outside reality?

The camels you unleashed at the people

Tell the story of your ‘Brilliance!’

The story of Raya and Sekena (Two late famous Egyptian outlaw females)

Came back to my memory after seeing your picture with Suleiman exchanging positions

The folks didn’t move from underneath your water leak

To live under the waterfall of your Suleiman

The person who hates Pharaoh,

How can he like Haman? (Haman was Pharaoh’s Police Minister)

As he who stands with you in such a day

Must be your partner in everything

Then stop making promises and stop making speeches

As the story of the lying shepherd still has roots in our memory

You want the folks to keep living among the holes

And to keep swallowing the double sharp-blade

Al-Shabi (Abu Al-Qassem Al-Shabi: a late famous Tunisian poet) wants the best life for the folks

But not to work for you, nor to pretend they like you

You and your type stole the life from our generations

But the generation of Youth refused to be humiliated

The Youth that Shawki (Ahmad Shawki: a late famous Egyptian poet) blessed

They armed themselves with technology and, for courage, built factories

They rejected your garbage which we accepted (To live with)

They were not scared by your terror, in contrary, it motivated them

They pulled you as a serpent is pulled from its pit

And they grounded you as they do to stones in quarries

This is the Egypt that talked by the tongue of Hafez (Hafez Ibrahim: a late famous Egyptian poet)

Its Folks returned to raise the pillars of Glory.

***

Poetry by: Tarif Youssef-Agha

February 2011

Houston, Texas