KONSTANTIN FISCHER, HANIA, CRETE

FI 'ALLAYL WA'ANNAHAR – DAY AND NIGHT

Back home in the garden: he is milking Layla, his silly goat,

the dark one with the tiny white spots all over her back;

the cicadas chirping in the wind, the smell of dry grass;

little Rahman helping Ishtar, their sister, who's hanging the washing,

mom in the kitchen, fixing molokhia with chicken; their father –

Yussef, träum nicht! Yussef, stop dreaming!

But how can he find the right words in the teacher's strange, guttural language,

to explain that his mother is still alive, little Rahman and Ishtar, still alive in his mind

when it's drifting away, that his father is still not taken by the soldiers;

in his dreams they're still safe and at home, in his dreams fi 'allayl wa'annahar.

                                                                                                                                                               Konstantin Fischer, 2017

fi 'allayl wa'annahar in Arabic: day and night

في الليل والنهار

molokhia Middle Eastern Dish