With All Respect to Mules...

I just got this emailed to me from a dear friend. I know if he knew I had a blog and that I would be silly enough to post it, he wouldn't have sent it.

This reminds me of the dark days in Wonderland, when I had to smuggle books I wanted to read from London. It really is scary to be in a country which fears the written word.

Everytime I collect my luggage from the conveyor belt it had a huge X in chalk on it. There are two lines, the red and the green. I would flash (figuratively) a huge smile on my face and walk like a blonde over to the green line to get out.

With tight-fitting jeans and a sleeveless top, I would put on my silliest face of all times.

"You have an X on your bag.. what's in it?" a half-celled amoeba would ask.

"Stupid school books.." I would mutter.

"Can you open your bag?" he would continue in the charade.

"Can you help me with it?" I would wink back as we roll over the bag and I rummage through all my underwear until I get to the offensive material..

You should see the expression on those bozos faces when you show them books in English..

"But all this is in a foreign language," he would say.

"English is hardly foreign.." I would reply...

I really can't stand being interrogated by a twit who barely passed sixth grade..but I am getting side-tracked here..back to the poem.. It is by Ahmed Mattar, who though not silly, couldn't shut up! They tried. They couldn't. His poems are still banned here. By here, I mean around the Arab swamp..I mean around the stagnant Arab swamp.. but they are readily available in London.. and online.

I am sorry I wont be able to do it any justice by translating it.. so here it is..

بغــــــــل
للشاعر/ أحمد مطر

قال بغلٌ مستنير واعظاً بغلاً فتيا

يا فتى إصغِ إليّا...

إنما كان أبوك امرأ سوءٍ

و كذا أمك قد كانت بغيّا.

أنت بغلٌ

يا فتى... و البغل نغلٌ

فإحذر الظن بأن الله قد سواك نبيّا.

يا فتى... أنت غبي.

حكمة الله، لأمرٍ ما، أرادتك غبيّا

فاقبل النصح

تكن بالنصح مرضياً رضيّا

أنت إن لم تستفد منه فلن تخسر شيّا.

يا فتى... من أجل أن تحمل أثقال الورى

صيرك الله قويّا.

يا فتى... فاحمل لهم أثقالهم مادمت حيّا

و استعذ من عقدة النقص

فلا تركل ضعيفاً حين تلقاه ذكيّا.

يا فتى... احفظ وصاياي

تعش بغلاً،

و إلاّ

ربما يمسخك الله رئيساً عربيّا !