* Read by Fateh Hamdan
If you go down that road, at the city's edge,
the one that leads to the refugee camp,
if you run into a bunch of kids at the gate of that school that looks like a prison,
if you come across seven who stare at the threshold of silence,
if you see a lithe little boy with eyes that spark with the intelligence of the entire world,
you can be sure you've found my friend Taysir.
His family had a country that was stolen in broad daylight.
In his restless eyes you will glimpse the vibrancy of the birds of the stolen land.
The cement houses,
the memory of zinc,
the scary crackle of the occupying army's radios during the weeks of curfew,
none of it has dimmed the spark in his eyes.
Only once has he seen the sea.
Nothing will convince him not to return.
During the long days of curfew they would say : ”Once curfew is over, we will take you to the sea”.
One night, when the curfew was over, they told him: ”The sea is closed at this hour. Go to sleep!”
He didn't sleep that night, he imagined an old man
closing up the sea with an enormous zinc slab that stretched from star to horizon to sandy beach,
and securing it with a big padlock, bigger than the one his father’s shop had in Omar al-Mukhtar Street.
Then he imagined the old man heading off home.
So if you go down that road, at the city's edge,
the one that leads to the refugee camp,
if you glimpse two eyes that spark with the intelligence of the entire world,
would you please ask if the sea of Gaza has been opened
or if it's still shut.
CROSSING THE WATERS 1
Voice: Fateh Hamdan
Sound: Graeme Thomson & Silvia Maglioni
Music & mix: Graeme Thomson
Najwan Darwish is a Palestinian poet. He lives between Jerusalem and Haifa.