787 | A CHILD

Photo Germain Droogenbroodt

A child

Lost at the Place of Tortures,

a child leans over the fountain

where tears and nostalgia gush

It has walked weary for centuries of war

Run from wounds to wisdom

From wisdom to the fury of life

Its eyes are riveted to the heart

Eyes that ruin the circles of conceit

Of the debaters of blood

It comes from that line of white dawn

Behind the forest

Where the tree makes the legendary sky

In the middle of the square disguised as if for a celebration

The child does not see the ambush

Of the destroyers of the future

It bends down, drawn by the pure water of its thirst

It might probably fall

If a gesture did not divert the fragility

From its path.

Philippe Tancelin, France

Translation Mirosław Grudzień – Anna Maria Stępień

from « De l’Inchangé, Palestine – L’Inséparable poème (1982-2024) »
l’Harmattan, Paris 2024