{"id":91048,"date":"2017-05-08T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91048"},"modified":"2017-04-30T14:38:55","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T13:38:55","slug":"we-shall-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/we-shall-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"We Shall Remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a thousand times easier For you
\nTo pass an elephant through the needle\u2019s eye
\nTo catch fried fish in the Milky Way
\nTo plow the sea
\nTo teach the alligator speech, a thousand times easier
\nThan smothering with your oppression
\nThe spark of an idea
\nOf forcing us to deviate
\nA single step
\nFrom our chosen march.
\nLike twenty impossibles
\nWe shall remain in Lydda, Ramlah, and Galilee.<\/p>\n

Here upon your chests
\nWe shall remain
\nLike the glass and the cactus
\nIn your throats
\nA fiery whirlwind
\nIn your eyes.<\/p>\n

Here we shall remain
\nA wall on your chests.
\nWe wash dishes in the hotels
\nAnd serve drinks to the masters.
\nWe mop the floors in the dark kitchens
\nTo extract a piece of bread
\nFrom your blue teeth
\nFor the little ones.<\/p>\n

Here, we shall remain
\nA wall on your chests.
\nWe starve,
\nGo naked,
\nSing songs
\nAnd fill the streets
\nWith demonstrations
\nAnd the jails with pride.
\nWe breed rebellions
\nOne after another.
\nLike twenty impossibles we remain
\nIn Lydda, Ramlah, Galilee.<\/p>\n

Here, we shall remain.
\nYou may drink the sea;
\nWe shall guard the shade
\nOf the olive tree and the fig,
\nPlanting ideas
\nLike the yeast in the dough.
\nThe coldness of ice is in our nerves
\nAnd a burning hell in our hearts.
\nWe squeeze the rock
\nTo quench our thirst
\nAnd if we starve
\nWe eat the dirt
\nAnd never depart
\nOr grudge our blood.<\/p>\n

Here\u2015we have a past
\n\u2015a present
\n\u2015and a future.
\nOur roots are entrenched
\nDeep in the earth.
\nLike twenty impossibles
\nWe shall remain.<\/p>\n

Let the oppressor review his account
\nBefore the turn of the wheel.
\nFor every action there is a reaction:
\nRead what is written in the Book.
\nLike twenty impossibles
\nWe shall remain\u2015in Lydda, in Ramlah
\nAnd Galilee.<\/p>\n

1970<\/em><\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tawfiq Zayyad<\/em> (7 May 1929 \u2013 5 Jul 1994) was a Palestinian politician well known for his “poetry of protest.” Born in the Galilee, he studied literature in the USSR. After returning home, he was elected mayor of Nazareth in Dec 1973, as head of Palestine 48 Rakah<\/a>, a communist party; a victory that is said to have “surprised and alarmed” Israelis. Elected to the Knesset in the 1973, he was active in pressuring the Israeli government to change its policies towards Arabs – both those inside Palestine and in the occupied Palestinian territories.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a thousand times easier For you
\nTo pass an elephant through the needle\u2019s eye
\nTo catch fried fish in the Milky Way
\nTo plow the sea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}