Saturday 24 November 2012

People with Green Hearts

Arabic poem,
Author شهرزاد الخليج,
Translated and illustrated by Nahida Exiled Palestinian



People with green hearts 

The colour of trees is the colour of their hearts 

Their dreams… water pure

 Their imagination… sky wide





 They are capable of infinite forgiveness 
Have the ability to bathe in optimism
 And to wash themselves in dreams to the very last drop






 People with green hearts
 Don’t ever expect to be stabbed from the back 
By a hand that once shook theirs


 Their days and seasons are works of art painted with hope
 They don’t learn easily from their mistakes
 Instead, they keep repeating them like a child’s bad habits


 
 They offer hearts around them infinite trust 
They're incapable of seeing the colour black in existence



 People with green hearts 
Come intimately near to those who pass them by in life, 
So much so that they are glued to them 
They cling to the minute details 
Ever trusting of those around
 Creative in finding excuses to the faults of others 


 People with green hearts 
Cling onto beginnings like mad 
Reject endings fiercely 
They can’t comprehend separation


They trick reality with a dream 
The dream with an illusion 
On the map of hope, they occupy vast areas


People with green hearts
 Don’t recognise mistrust or deception 
Nor do they cause others to taste portrayal 


They start with purity
 And end up with faithfulness
 Longing steals much of their time
 They keep loyal to their tales until death 
Yesterday has immense reverence in their lives


 People with green hearts
 Play the role of peace doves
 Spreading love on earth 
Help in building abodes of joy 


They hasten to mend the broken hearts
 And talk with the voice of affection

About love and dreams


They make you feel that it’s them 
Who invented the colour “white” in this universe



 People with green hearts 
Hold fast to childhood, despite the passing of years 
Their hearts forever young 
Their souls never grow old, nor become polluted 




Their faces reflects babyhood innocence 
Their eyes mirror truthfully their essence
They’re not good at hiding, or deceiving 
And fail miserably in wearing masks


 People with green hearts
 Never fail you when you need them
 They are the first to cover your needs


 When feeling overwhelmed;

They are the first thing that you lay your eyes upon 
The first who come to your rescue when drowned in sorrow 


When you are suffocated they’d give you their breath 
They’d make their lives a life ring thrown to you



 People with green hearts
 When they love, they love passionately 


When they are faithful, they are faithful passionately
 When they get a shock, the get a shock passionately


 And when they are broken, they are broken passionately
 When they give, they give passionately 
And when they cry, they cry passionately




 If you find yourself embraced

 By one of those with green hearts 
Cling onto them… passionately


 As they are a rare treasure

 In times of colour-shifting hearts 


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