On The Road To Baghdad
by T. J. Shemaly |
By the yellowish air and the ashes down by the long road to the aches I shall let my tongue judge and say what for my heart could not just stay on the long road of agony and sorrow on the road to Baghdad did I follow Oh Basra, have I seen your old days when my elders came across the banks Did or did not, the bloody history say how then or now got swept by the tanks Patience, O patience did lose its way away to the heart before it can say to you thanks And on the path of darkdom walked I along the banks where Euphrates did lie Escaped the heart before the steps of the holy when I reached the lands of Najaf, the jolly But what happiness am I seeking in here it raced before me and went not any near There I see the sight of my hammering tears where the golden dome of dignity stands Karbala, O Karbala, what agony did you bear and what holy legs fell down with the hands In you, this little heart swept out the fear just to remember where the diginity stands Wondering I am and my thought was away would it be the same if Tigris was my way Yet along the path of the blue history in far I see the ruins of this heart and the Allahu-Akbar There when once was there a minaret of height when there was a love to be taken with its weight Samarra, my beloved, to silence you went? or shy to look at your lovers with agony? Shy be not, and shy shall I go with guilt damned the hand that broke your harmony Three times O my lonely town down the thrift but to whom my shouts go, O sweeter than honey? And here I am, on the gates of sadness where I should forget the word 'happiness' Here is Baghdad O passer by say salute where life and death are equal in loot Hold your heart and walk through the stings and remember the death smell that rings Let the tears pour down on the goldish sky where my Kazimain lie peacefully and calm Peacefully as in few moments of feeling high as peacefully as to cause to me no single harm What blackish path I ask myself that I did try O Baghdad, verily for death, you have a charm |