I Grant You Refuge by Hiba Abu Nada
Seven Days of Palestinian Poetry: Day One. #ReadPalestine Week.
Friday 29th November marks International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the first day of Read Palestine Week. The initiative was started by Publishers for Palestine, a global collective of publishers and those who work in publishing, and you can learn more about the week and read their statement of solidarity here.
With this in mind, I’m bringing back my daily poetry posts to share a poem (or two) written by a Palestinian poet every day for the next week.
Today’s poem is I Grant You Refuge by Palestinian poet, novelist and educator, Hiba Abu Nada (1991-2023). It is one of the last pieces she wrote, just ten days before she and her family were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their home in Khan Yunis, Gaza on the 20th October 2023.
Some of you will be familiar with the poem, which was shared widely online in the weeks following Hiba’s death. I was grateful for the opportunity to revisit it recently while reading the anthology ‘Daylight in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture’, in which it is published alongside excerpts from Hiba’s diaries, written from the 7th October 2023 up until the day of her death.
The version below was translated from the Arabic by Huda Fakhreddine and originally published in Protean Magazine on 3rd November 2023.
I Grant You Refuge
1.
I grant you refuge
in invocation and prayer.
I bless the neighbourhood and the minaret
to guard them
from the rocket
from the moment
it is a general’s command
until it becomes
a raid.
I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones who
change the rocket’s course
before it lands
with their smiles.
2.
I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones now asleep like chicks in a nest.
They don’t walk in their sleep toward dreams.
They know death lurks outside the house.
Their mothers’ tears are now doves
following them, trailing behind
every coffin.
3.
I grant the father refuge,
the little ones’ father who holds the house upright
when it tilts after the bombs.
He implores the moment of death:
“Have mercy. Spare me a little while.
For their sake, I’ve learned to love my life.
Grant them a death
as beautiful as they are.”
4.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and death,
refuge in the glory of our siege,
here in the belly of the whale.
Our streets exalt God with every bomb.
They pray for the mosques and the houses.
And every time the bombing begins in the North,
our supplications rise in the South.
5.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and suffering.
With words of sacred scripture
I shield the oranges from the sting of phosphorous
and the shades of cloud from the smog.
I grant you refuge in knowing
that the dust will clear,
and they who fell in love and died together
will one day laugh.If you’d like to read more of Hiba Abu Nada’s poetry, Huda Fakhreddine’s English translations of ‘Pull Yourself Together’ and ‘Seven Skies for the Homeland’ were published online by Words Without Borders and can be found here, and her poem ‘Not Just Passing’ was published online by Arab Lit Quarterly and can be found here.
As previously mentioned, you can also find Hiba Abu Nada’s writing in the anthology ‘Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture.’ The anthology was published by Saqi Books and all profits will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Lastly, if you’re looking to take part in Read Palestine Week, a selection of free ebooks by Palestinian writers, as well as a list of actions and events taking place all around the world can be found via Publishers for Palestine.
Until tomorrow,
Tasnim