Oh Warrior Of My Sacred Land
By Darwesh Durrani
Oh warrior of my sacred land
The gun that lies on your shoulder
This gun neither has eye nor a foot/leg
It sees my steps through your eyes.
It searches and follows me through your feet/legs
In order to make a hole in my chest
And listen to my heated cry through your ears.
Oh warrior of my sacred land
The gun that lies on your shoulder
Is this gun really that crippled?
Deaf and blind?
Or it has left its eyes, feet/legs and ears somewhere else?
Instead, it uses limbs of your body.
Oh warrior of my sacred land
The gun that lies on your shoulder
You might not know well this gun.
But I know
my enemy an your enemy/our mutual enemy is sitting somewhere far away.
He wants to fight us in a manner
to break our jaw with a heavy blow.
While he (our mutual enemy) is safe from the reach of our thrust,
He wants to mix our blood with soil
But (he wants) his blood remains safe in his veins
He wants that we spent our nights in a freezing front
But he remains seated beside the warmth of fireplace
With this in mind, our enemy prepares
He leaves his body at home like a shirt
But come to our land in the shape of a gun.
Oh warrior of my sacred land
When this limbless, black/dark enemy
Comes in the shape of a gun to our land
It doesn’t come as one or two or four / alone
Their number is greater than the population of this land
Each one of them wanders around and fights fearlessly
It doesn’t bring a bone with it that would break
It doesn’t have any skin or flesh that would hurt
It doesn’t have any vein that would be cut
It doesn’t have any blood that would spell.
All of its limbs are safe at home.
It uses our limbs here
One of them searches for me through your feet/legs
The other looks at you with my eyes
The third rests on the shoulder of another one (of us)
in the same way as this gun lies on your shoulder.
It has left all of its limbs at its home
Except its mouth, that it brought with it here
The shoulder is yours but it is his mouth that operates
This mouth doesn’t have any teeth
It speaks the language of bullets
When the bullet pierces through someone’s body
He doesn’t look at its toothless mouth
He sees your shoulder and hand
He considers you, not him as the enemy
He wants to take revenge of his blood from you.
Oh warrior of my sacred land
The gun that lies on your shoulder
How much blood has it shed in our land?
But no one has demanded it to compensate for the blood it has shed. You are responsible for this blood.
People will take revenge from you,
By allowing another gun from their shoulder,
to direct its mouth and bullet
towards your chest and heart.
This bullet will eventually reach your chest.
OH you who is fond of the throne/power,
You are getting closer to coffin than throne.
Be careful and think of yourself
Before your enemy throws you away into the dark grave
save yourself from such a dark fate/end
Find out / Know who your real enemy is.
and who is pushing you towards the dark grave?
Believe me, I am not your enemy
I am your brother
Our common/mutual enemy is the gun that lies on your shoulder,
which is deaf, blind and crippled.
It sees my footsteps through your eyes.
It follows me through your feet.
(in order) to make a hole in my chest with a bullet
and listen to my heated cry with your ears.