After posting yesterday's Nazm, Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s “Ek Naghma Karbala-e-Beirut Ke Liye” (A Threnody for the Karbala of Beirut), I am flooded with poems about Beirut from my well-meaning readers today.

I am really overwhelmed by their interest. 

I will share some of them here regularly, and today it is “Memory for Forgetfulness” by Mahmoud Darwish. 

I request that, when sharing the poem, you include the translator’s name. Their contributions are immense.

Here, within her, I live,
A banner from my own shroud.
Here, I leave behind what’s not mine.
And here, I dive into my own soul,
That my time may start with me.
Let Beirut be what it wants to be.
She will forget me,
That I may forget her.

Will I forget? Oh, would, oh, would I could
This moment brings back my homeland
Out of myself! I wish I knew what I desire
I wish I knew!
I wish I knew!”