WEBVTT

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This poem is a cento.

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And it is composed
entirely of lines

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by Mahmoud Darwish,
translated into English.

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"A Single Word--

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Home."

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Denuded of my
name, of belonging,

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childhood memories grow up in
me, one day following another.

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In the deep horizon of
my word, I have a moon.

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And it is as tiny
as a sesame seed.

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I have learned all the words
needed for a trial by blood.

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If I return one day, take me
for a kindling in your fire.

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I am aged.

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A fog veils me.

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Facing the dusk and the canon
of time, the fields of wheat,

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the white graves.

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Free, I stand beside my freedom.

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I am known to all the songs
of rain, all the prisons, all

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the borders.

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I must be worthy of
my mother's tears.

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For my name I shall choose
letters of Azure, the birds that

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chased after my palms.

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What will we do
before this death?

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We are dust's bygone neighbors.

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You, who stand in
the doorway, come in.

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