The Vision Of Henry

By Fadwa Taqan

Inspired by the painting "Henry" by William Faulkner

Oh eyes ,what world's mirror are you?

And what candle lights your depth?

Send us unique threads of light

to make for us a useful ladder

by which we may reach your safe harbor.

We are the frightened orphans and wanderers.

Our land is shaken,its innocence defiled.

No purity ,no love, no happiness

with which to bless the heart of our land.

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What spring of love flows beneath your eyes?

We are thirsty for rain: our roots are drying up.

Our soil is barren,no longer fruitful,

covered with salt, it no longer gives us crops.

O, for a drop of your passionate spring

to bring life back to the seeds!

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What vision in the depth in your eyes!

How healthy in spirit your vision,

as a child on whom confusion has laid no shadow!

Your vision is a world of clear skies

in which the stars always shine,

where man triumphed and so broke down

obstacles, walls, and hard limitations.

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Like a big, deep-rooted tree

ever anticipating a new horizon,

you challenge dull confusion that

wraps up this studborn and misty world

where the bird of destruction hovers

as it carries terror and dreadful death.

Like a big, deep-rooted tree,

you overlook a studborn and clamorous world

where man is anxious and frightened,

with the light strangled in his heart,

as the joys of heart died in him.

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The vision in your eyes never recedes; it never escapes;

nothing can crush maturity.

Your vision overflows with light forever;

it never diminishes:

there is triumph for man, for patience

there is triumph for man ,for patience.