Two Poems

Two Short Poems from Israel and Palestine

All Will Be Well, I Promise

Come, a bit of quiet.
Come, a little boredom.
You deserve it,
Everything is so loud here, unfinished.

How are you?
They ask me on the street,
all kinds of people.
I am how my people are,
I respond,
and then they heave a small sigh
like sharers of a troubled time.
All will be well! I promise.
As if I were the secret keeper of the Messiah.

—From Toward the Other Place: The Last Poems, published by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad - Sifriat Poalim Publishing

“Who Remembers the Armenians?”

I remember them
and I ride the nightmare bus with them
each night
and my coffee, this morning
I’m drinking it with them

You, murderer—
Who remembers you?

—From Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
First published in English by New York Review Books
Translation Copyright © 2014 by Kareem James Abu-Zeid