By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Palestinian poetess Alaa Al-Qatrawi, 25, from Gaza’s Al-Nusierat refugee camp has been shortlisted for the second stage of The Prince of Poets held in the United Arab Emirates two days ago.

Al-Qatrawi has recited a poem, which described the love of a Palestinian, who had his hands amputated, for his homeland, following what appears to be an Israeli bombing. The poem, translated from Arabic, reads:

“I am still alive even if they bomb my hands,

If I can’t find my leg,

I don’t see things around me,

I don’t listen to a nearby bird,

I don’t hear the sound of my mother and my father,

I will not master drawing or even writing again anymore,

My heart is still beating,

Telling the wounded homeland, I got tired.

How much I got tired of you, from you,

To you, beautiful Palestine.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f9dHTN6g2w&t=530s

Al-Qatrawi is an UNRWA teacher based in Gaza and has published a number of poetry collections.

(PalestineChronicle.com)