I Have No Home!

At last I have been able to wake
and shake off my painful slumber!!
For sleep gives no rest to the hungry and the wretched!!

How often I turned to it, that it might make me forget my sorrows... but my soul..
my sad, aching soul does not forget me... nor can I forget it!!
In slumber, when I lie down from my toils...
I see my cares in my dreams...
They never leave me... neither in painful waking... nor in sorrowful sleep!
How should they leave me... and forget me... and I forget them!!
And where shall I find patience and solace...
for the calamities of these days...

The birds have nests...
and I have no nest... and I have no home...
I am she who wanders aimless through the wastes...
on whom no kinsman and no neighbor takes pity, or mourns her state...

My father... my mother...
I do not know where they are?...
They left me alone...
And I picture them weeping...
asking after their lost daughter!!
Why do I not clasp them to my breast..?

The snows are gleaming white...
covering the plains, the hills, and the mountains...
And I have no clothing to shield me from the bitter frost...
And people are grudging with fire and with garments...
What ails them, that they are cruel and show no mercy...
to the orphaned, forsaken girl...
victim of unjust politics... and of hideous selfishness!

I am... dying... dying...
So let me ask mercy!!...
for those who made covenant with God to bring me back, and did not bring me back — to my father... to my brother... to my country...

(Amman)