Haitian Eulogy  [1]


I had a child lofty as the lustrous sun
Suddenly to lowly darkness of a hole
            I offered him

The mother succumbed to her son’s pain
To dust, with aching body
            I offered him

I was like the corpse of a virgin girl [2]
To heavens like the stars of Leo, enlightened
            I offered him

Like the father of a bride to groom I said:
“To depth of earth as a golden treasure”
            I offered him

Now it is only “I” and left by “My Self”
To safekeeping of his Lord a precious gift
            I offered him

Since no sanctuary for my child in Haiti
To sanctuary of his Lord, alas
            I offered him



It is my Beloved who draws the smiles upon our vapid faces and again It is my Beloved, forsooth, who painted the melancholy portrait withered by the etched lines of a Divine Epithet upon her sunless forehead.
 
No sorrow, no AIDS, no starvation, no wars and indeed no power whatsoever in the universe has been granted the force to break the hearts of the Children of Adam. The fracturing of the human heart is the sole and exclusive potent doing of my Beloved, who shares not this power with any of Its creation.
 
Hearken unto the lines of her forehead, The Divine Epithet, and you shall behold the Creator of the heavens and earth. Turn your face away and you shall feel the abject misery of an endless pain, the un-blest endowment for every analgesic unloving heart.



[1] This poem is an adaptation of a eulogy written by Khaqaani Shervani many hundreds of years ago for his son in Persia. I changed the word from Shervan to Haiti.

[2] Corpse of Virgin girl is the Arabic name of "Bent Na'ash" (daughter of Na'ash) referring to stars of big/little dipper. However allegorically it also can read: a dead virgin who did not taste the pleasures of life (seeing his son growing up and etc.).




Background: Dead Haitian



© 2004-2002,  Dara Shayda