Notes:

1This poem will appear in the poet’s forthcoming bilingual poetry collection, titled Rhymes of Blood and Jasmine. The poem was written in memory of Taha, the only child of a Palestinian refugee who was uprooted from his land during the Nakba in 1948 and lived in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood of Beirut, where he worked as a building guard and slept with his child Taha and his wife under the staircase.

The poet visited this family by chance at their place of residence on 21 August 1975. During the bloody war in Beirut that broke out that year and lasted ten years, this child was killed, and with him was killed his mother’s dream that he would grow up and save the family from the hardship that had plagued them since the Nakba. How similar today is to yesterday? The Nakba continues!

3The massacre of Tal al-Zactar was one of the most tragic episodes of the Lebanese Civil War. Tal al-Za‘tar, a Palestinian refugee camp in eastern Beirut, was besieged in the summer of 1976 by right-wing Lebanese militias. For weeks, the camp endured intense shelling, starvation, and the destruction of water and medical facilities, leaving civilians without basic means of survival. In August 1976, after the camp fell, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed or disappeared, and the survivors were forcibly displaced. Tal al-Za‘tar remains a powerful symbol of Palestinian suffering, statelessness, and the catastrophic human cost of sectarian war.

4“Roman olive trees” in Palestine refers to ancient olive trees believed to date back to the Roman period, roughly 2,000 years ago. Many of these trees are still alive and productive, symbolizing continuity, resilience, and a deep-rooted Palestinian presence on the land. They are valued not only for their agricultural importance but also for their historical, cultural, and national significance.

5From the Arabian Gulf eastward to the Atlantic Ocean on the boundaries of Morocco in the west. This is an allusion to the suffering of the Palestinians, which extends over the Arab world, including countries that show solidarity with these people.

6Che Guevara (1928–1967) was an Argentine revolutionary and Marxist theorist who played a central role in the Cuban Revolution and later pursued armed struggle in Africa and Latin America. For Palestinian resistance movements, Guevara became a symbol of internationalist revolution, anti-imperialism, and armed struggle against oppression. His image and writings resonated with Palestinian groups seeking global solidarity and framing their cause within wider Third World liberation movements.

7al-Rabadhī is Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (d. 652 CE) was a prominent companion of the Prophet Muhammad known for his asceticism, moral rigor, and uncompromising stance on social justice. He openly criticized the accumulation of wealth by elites and advocated for economic equality and care for the poor, grounding his views in Qur’ānic ethics. His principled opposition to corruption, even at personal cost, made him an enduring symbol of social justice in early Islamic history.

8Abū Jahl (cAmr Ibn Hishām, d. 624 CE) was a leading Qurayshi chief of Mecca and one of the fiercest opponents of the Prophet Muhammad in the early Islamic period. Renowned for his political influence and militancy, he actively persecuted and tortured early Muslim converts and led efforts to suppress Islam. In Islamic historiography, he symbolizes arrogance, tyranny, and violent resistance to moral and religious reform.

9cAmrūsh Filisṭīn “Amrouche of Palestine” was a nickname given to the Palestinian leader Abū cAlī Iyād (real name Walīd Aḥmad Nimr Naṣr al-Ḥasan, 1935-1971), one of the most prominent figures of the Palestinian resistance in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly during the “Black September” events in Jordan (1970–1971). He opposed Yasser Arafat’s conciliatory political choices and insisted on armed confrontation. He was killed in northern Jordan and became a symbol of revolutionary steadfastness and resistance.

The nickname was inspired by the Algerian revolutionary Amrouche, a symbol of the Algerian War of Liberation against French colonialism. Abū cAlī Iyād was compared to Amrouche because of his revolutionary discipline, military rigor, unwavering commitment to armed struggle, and rejection of political compromises he viewed as concessions. The title symbolized the connection between the Palestinian struggle and global liberation movements, especially the Algerian revolutionary experience, which deeply influenced Palestinian resistance thought at the time.

© Text by Hilmi M. Zawati