We shall climb this mountain, Mourid Barghouti

A screenshot of a video released recently of Mourid Al Barghouti reciting his poem we shall climb this mountain on AJ+ Arabic

The sudden death of Palestinian poet Mourid Al Barghouti has left many of us who were touched by his life and his family's incredible talents baffled and saddened. I've been a big fan of his son's work since my college years and had the pleasure of seeing the two recite poetry in Cairo.

I found myself translating this poem of his in my head after his son Tamim introduced it in a video a few days ago, I figured it would be a nice tribute to just type this translation down and share it with the rest of the world since Mourid isn't as familiar as I wish he'd have been in non-Arabic speaking circles. 

Tamim mentioned at the beginning of the video that his father wrote down the first verse of this poem after he'd been diagnosed with cancer back in November 2020. It was originally published in Arabic in 2002 under the title ولدان يصعدان جبلا "Two boys climb a mountain". 

The line he wrote on a piece of paper was: We shall climb this mountain.

Here's a short tribute in English on Mourid Barghouti by Middle East Monitor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrTTs_k87qE

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قصيدة مريد البرغوثي الذي رحل عنا كتبها في ٢٠٠٢، وترجمتي السريعة لها تكريمًا له..

توجع قليلاً.. توجع كثيرا

سنصعد هذا الجبل

متعبين تماما

و حولي و حولك يأسان

يأسي و يأسك

رعبي و رعبك

Be in pain for a bit, be in a lot of pain

You and I shall climb this mountain,

Completely exhausted,

surrounded by two despairs,

your's and mine

your horror and my horror

يا صاحبي

نحن لسنا جبانين

أو بطلين

ولكننا ولدان بسيطان

مثل مكاتيب فلاحة غربوها

بسيطان

مثل نعاس الرعاة ومثل العطش

بسيطان

كالعائدين من الحقل للبيت

كالعائدين من الويل للبيت

نحن بسيطان

يا ليت قصتنا مثلنا

My friend, you and I are neither cowards,

Nor heroes,

we're merely two simple boys,

as simple as the letters,

a forcibly exiled woman from the village would write,

we're as simple,

as shepards' slumber, and thirst

we're as simple as folks,

coming home from the fields,

coming home from woe,

we're simple, and how I wish our story was simple, too.

الطريق إلى السهل هذا الجبل

الطريق إلى الأهل هذا الجبل

كل ما تشتهي كل ما أشتهي

يبدأ الآن أو ينتهي.

والأمل ذروة اليأس يا صاحبي!

الأمل..

توجع قليلا .. توجع كثيرا

توجع.. فإن الأمل ذاته موجع حين لا يتبقى سواه.

سنصعد هذا الجبل.

The road to the valley is this mountain,

The road to our family is this mountain,

All that you desire, all that I desire,

Starts or ends right now,

And hope, my friend, is the peak of despair!

Be in pain for a bit, be in a lot of pain

Be in pain, for hope itself is painful,

when it's the only thing left.

we shall climb this mountain!

Video: Americans reflect on "Election Day" 2016

I started video filming again recently for the first time in years. 

These clips were initially for a "Cultural Bridging" effort in an ESL program I started in order to offer real life experiences and different perspectives from the American public to the Arab world and our ESL students. 

On Election Day, November 8, 2016, we asked several Americans on the street their thoughts on the election.

Chris, from New Jersey, was dressed up in a Donald Trump mask and encouraged voters to go out and vote to, as he said, "Stop Trump."

We also talked to several American students about their feelings and thoughts on the US presidential election this year. 

Here's what students and members of Temple University Asian American Association had to say about it.

“People don’t do that enough: to come together and try to be one. I think everyone kind of sees themselves as just by themselves and they don’t really want to socialize with other people. And I think people really underestimate the power of unity. And if a lot of people come together, I feel as though, you guys can make a difference. It’s because a lot of people, they just feel as though they can’t. They feel small, like one little speck of dust in a room. I think people need to realize that you have a lot of capabilities and you have a lot of potential., and you can do so much with that, as long as you choose to.”

A final interview was with 2 young women who are Muslim and attend Temple University as well.

If you wanted to learn more about the English as a Second Language program, check out the Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Lifelong.English.Education/