The Learned Pig

Art – Thinking – Nature – Writing

Hommes sous Hommes, II

In 2005, I went to Palestine for three weeks with my parents, my wife and our daughter, aged two. We were invited to carry out workshops with young artists and kids. A mural was painted on the wall of a playground in a camp next to Qalendia check point. We made several friends and knew some of our roots were now planted in that earth. During that time and after I wrote a long poem called Destinez moi la Palestine. Later on it was published in an Arabic/French version and printed in Jerusalem. The friends who made that publication possible kept it as a surprise and one day I unexpectedly received a copy of the book. How grateful I was.

In 2010, I was invited to do a series of readings from that book in different cities in the West Bank. Again, in the face of what I was witnessing I had no other choice than to write. This gave birth to these poems. In French they were published by Editions Samizdat under the title Hommes sous hommes: Écrits de la Palestine occupée. My father then translated them into English and a few were published in Modern Poetry in Translation and one in the Guardian.

 
 

Bande de Gaza (souvenirs)

Gaza Strip (memos)


Une radio diffuse
une voix humaine
devant le silence

From a radio
a human voice
addresses silence

 


Des pierres chaudes
de maisons détruites
coulent à l’horizon

Warm stones
of destroyed homes
to the horizon

 


Des mouches attaquent
un cheval maigre
sous le ciel clair

Flies attack
a lean horse
under a clear sky

 


Un vieil homme traverse
au dos d’une carriole
chargée d’herbes sauvages

An old man passes
astride a cart
loaded with wild herbs

 
 

Yves Berger, John Berger, Palestine

 


Des enfants jouent
de toutes les couleurs
à chaque carrefour

Playing children
with their colours
at each cross-road

 


Des rues de sable
passent sous les fenêtres
des hôtels inoccupés

Roads of sand
pass beneath the windows
of empty dwellings

 


Des paires de chaussures
forment une foule dense
à l’heure de la prière

Pairs of shoes
make a dense crowd
at the hour of prayer

 


Sous les palmiers osseux
des carcasses de serres
s’abandonnent au soleil

Beneath lean palm trees
wrecks of greenhouses
wide open to the sun

 
 

Yves Berger

 
 


A l’entrée des tunnels
des couvertures recouvrent
le sommeil des ouvriers

Where tunnels begin
blankets cover
sleeping workers

 


Des filets de pêcheurs
laissent passer le vent
entre leurs mailles

Fishing nets
let the wind
through their meshes

 


Au large de la mer
des vagues roulent
encore ailleurs

Out at sea
waves still roll
elsewhere

 


Une voix répète
Is this life?
It’s no life!

A voice repeats
Is this life?
It’s no life!

 
 
 
 

Yves Berger, Hommes sous hommes: Écrits de la Palestine occupée was published by Editions Samizdat, Geneva in 2016.

Cover image via Palestine Open Maps
All drawings by Yves Berger
English translations by John Berger
We have published further extracts from Hommes sous Hommes by Yves Berger here.

 
 

This is part of ROOT MAPPING, a section of The Learned Pig devoted to exploring which maps might help us live with a clear sense of where we are. ROOT MAPPING is conceived and edited by Melanie Viets.

 
 

The Learned Pig