Monday, August 4, 2014

Fabrication

by Najwan Darwish


The whole story is fabricated. Never have I believed the game that tells us you were slaughtered, and that your blood poured all the way to the Mediterranean only to be consumed by the sea. I am sure the story is all fabricated: Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor every night at 7.30.

Al‐Hurra (Free) [TV], al‐Arabiyya (the Arabian) [TV], and A‐ljazeera (the Peninsula) [TV]. Taken together: the Free Arabian Peninsula. Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor. I am sure they are also fabricated.

The bills placed into my mailbox by a person I do not know. The name of my family in three different languages. They, also, are fabricated. This woman who loves me through my email.

Haifa, too, is fabricated. This is why I never go down the street, and I only look at the sea from a perpendicular angle. Our friendship was in no one’s account. No one took the time to fabricate it; this is why it remained true. Oh! I forgot, all truths are fabricated. This is why I enjoyed sharing with you all your Araq, apples, nuts and other things.

Nothing pressures me. This is why I am not torn when I see our land that has been stolen from us. The robbery was fabricated, checkpoints are fabricated and the soldiers are a bunch of kids who still wet themselves. The elderly
Greek Orthodox women crossing into the Bethlehem checkpoint this morning are, also, fabricated. “In the name of the cross!” is said in a fabricated way. Good Friday is fabricated. The Byzantine‐tunes at the Maronite church in Nazareth is fabricated. My enemies are fabricated, and my relatives are the epitome of fabrication. Inferno is fabricated, and Paradise is fabricated with even greater skill and contempt. (Damn! Is Fairouz’s voice also fabricated?)

No nightmares haunt me, nightmares are fabricated. I do not suffer any disorders with my biological clock. I have no old enmity towards the sun, I do not suffer because of my inherited nature. All of these labels are fabricated.

I, too, am fabricated. Not because of who I am, but because all of the pronouns are fabricated. I do not hate collaborators; see how I listen to their news commentators without vomiting?

I am not afraid of the alarm clock, or even AIDS and atomic weapons. I do not suffer a phobia from ringing door bells or ringing phones. The world will not end tomorrow... all of these are fabricated news.
I am tired of 21st century romanticism: romance mixed with the “shit” of consumers from all social classes. If you wanted to live you too must be tarnished with it as well. This is also another fabricated theory.

Rejoice and be merry! The boxes filled with defeat that are stacked up under your grandparents’ beds are fabricated. And you have been wailing all those years about losing your homelands. Dude! (Woe! As said in Classical way) Loss is fabricated. A big lie formed by robbers of your existence.

Merriam Kershenbaum Shlomo Ganor Al‐Arabiyya al‐Hurra al‐Jazeera And that leper who holds the remote control.

Cockroaches and collaborators are nice creatures. Look at how gentle this one is, and how sweet the ugliness of that one’s face is. Our stereotypical ideas about their cheapness are fabricated.

A sedated group of men sit in the living room listening to the “Voice of Israel”. A respectable group of women make “Tabbouleh” and think about the future after having buried our public dignity. Don’t worry, these are all fabricated.

We cannot respect a few trees in front of our homes, leaving the mountains for those who set up the nets in our naps.

On the 22nd of April, 1948, Haifa surrendered. The date is fabricated. On the 8th of December, 1917, a few Effendis carried their white flag and a picture was taken of them as they surrendered Jerusalem. The event truly took place, but the picture is fabricated. You can, at any given time, gather a few Effendis and ask them to carry a white flag and march with it to Jaffa Gate to take a picture.

The time is 11:30 just before noon on the first of April 2010. Everyone went to sleep and awoke, and I am still up. Pillows are fabricated. In two weeks I will be going to Beirut. The Visa is an enormously fabricated obstacle. Oh, Our Lady of Lebanon, pray for us (though we know your prayer is fabricated.)

In a while I am going to sleep, as my wacky friend rides the bus from Nazareth. Words in Hebrew are flying around her like flies because she thinks the language of the enemy is a corpse, so I tell her: This is a fabricated ideology, the language of the enemy is a sexless robot. She bursts into a wacky, fabricated, laughter. We burst into laughter. Oh god, we won’t die. We run into eternity as our flip‐flops tap along. Eternity is fabricated. Everything that proceeded was a fabrication. Everything to come is also a fabrication. And each creature is raising it's arms like a tree in this fabricated poem.

Translated from the Arabic by Susan Hamad

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