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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
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