Julia Holter Instagram – from a @wawog_now event Jan 18: hundreds of Angelenos gathered for a vigil at Echo Park Lake to mourn and honor the lives of the writers, scholars, journalists, and poets among Gaza’s martyrs. This is an excerpt of Fariha Roisin reading “I Grant You Refuge” by Hiba Abu Nada (32, killed in her home in Khan Younis Oct 20 by Israeli airstrike)
Hiba Abu Nada
(trans. Huda Fakhreddine)
1.
I grant you refuge
in invocation and prayer.
I bless the neighborhood 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.
A printed manifesto, collectively written by members of WAWOG’s Los Angeles chapter, was distributed to the crowd. Excerpts below:
WE ARE 100 DAYS IN AND STILL WE HAVE NOT ACHIEVED A CEASEFIRE.
JOURNALISTS, WRITERS, POETS, AND SCHOLARS ARE BEING TARGETED BECAUSE THEY ARE THE KEEPERS OF LIVING HISTORY.
WE DEMAND A PERMANENT CEASEFIRE, AN END TO ISRAEL’S SIEGE ON GAZA, AND AN END TO OCCUPATION NOW. | Posted on 28/Jan/2024 19:25:34
