Don’t ask me how I am.
Let my features tell you how I appear.
For my sorrow is long—
like this night weaving itself deep within my soul.
I wish I were an ancient artifact hanging in a museum.
I wish I hadn’t survived.
I wish I hadn’t emerged from the rubble of the trap.
For my soul is ashes,
I’ve become ruins without a face.
I wish I weren’t just a number.
I wish I had never been born.
I wish I were a stranger to this place.
I wish I could grasp the shards and crush them.
I wish I could stop the bleeding of pain.
Or at least, I wish for a deep, unending slumber.
Everyone is absent—
Forgetfulness devours their hearts,
And time walks on, a stranger,
Teaching them defeat.

لا تسألني عن حالي
دع ملامحي تخبرك كيف أبدو
فحزني طويل
كهذا الليل الذي ينسجُ داخل روحي
ليتني كنت قطعة أثرية معلقة في متحف
ليتني لم أنجو
ليتني لم أخرج من ركام المصيدة
فنفسي رماد
أضحيت أنقاض بلا ملامح
ليتني لم أكن رقمًا
ليتني لم أولد
ليتني غريبة المكان
ليتني أمسك الشظايا وأفتتها
ليتني أوقف نزيف الأوجاع
أو ليتني أحظى بسبات عميق
فالجميع غائب
ينهش النسيان أفئدتهم
والوقت يمشي غريب
يعلمهم الهزيمة…

About

Dana Flaifl is a nineteen-year-old poet in Gaza who dreams of a simple, safe life where she can achieve her dreams. She writes: “Last year, I was supposed to finish high school and begin university. But war stole my father, leaving the six of us without our moon. All I have left is writing—and through it, I resist.” Her poems have appeared in Al-Yamamah and Arab Lit & Arab Lit Quarterly.

Najwa Sadi Juma is a Palestinian writer, poet, translator, educator, and women’s rights activist. She is a member of the General Union of the Palestinian Writers and a Board Member and the Head of the Cultural Forum at the International Palestinian Creativity Foundation. She has published two short‑story collections—Shut Off and Wings of Fear. She participated in editing and translating 48: Palestinian Short Stories with a group of Palestinian translators. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Jean‑Jacques‑Rousseau Fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.

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