Gone are those we love

(To Kamal Narer, Yuref Najjar and Kamal 'Adwan*)

One eagle after another vanished into darkness. One by one they were slain for having towered above the clouds.

Motherland' for your sake their blood was spilled like rosary beads of rubies slip. Gone are those we love.

Sorrow had no voice, behold Sorrow flowers silence to my lips and words fall much the same as their bodies fell corpses distorted. what else could I say? their blood is smearing my vision. Gone are those we love. Before their vessel ever anchored before their eyes ever caught sight of the distant port. Palestine in the seasons of your irremediable mourning you drank cups of absinthe we drank your thirst was unquenched ours eternal. Waterless we shall remain here at the mouth of this fountain till the day of their return with the ocean of dawns that they embraced: A vision that knows no death. A love that has no end.

I

* Kamal Naser, a Palestinian poet, together with Yusef Najjar and Kamal `Adwan, were high‑ranking members of The Movement for the Liberation of Palestine. In an Israeli raid into Beirut during the night of April 10, 1973, agents clandestinely made their way into their private homes and murdered the three leaders. This poem was published the following month.