Ikhlas ("Yasmin") Jebara's Significant Words - from Palestine
If you would like to respond to this wonderful Palestinian poet-song writer, please contact me and I will give you her email address.

TO SAY OR NOT TO SAY

I wonder whether to say or not to say
To be enthusiastic
to revolve
or to obey
For God or for people to pray
Or like a refugee without home to stay
Or like a child in the streets to play
Or to pass through a narrow or wide way
Or our hopes for future to delay
Or to sit under the red x-ray
Here we are my friend
with no decision
Whether to be or not to be
we do not know
Whether to say or not to say
————————–
IN OUR NARROW STREET

In our calm narrow street
I followed the traces of his feet
I heard the echo of hope
when she said you should meet
you should meet
Darkness bitterness of days you should defeat
My tongue had also said no blame no blame
Forget the past and live for your dream
For hope in your eyes would gleam
No one but echo answered me
No he is not free
With him we can not be
Until the masters of the fates agree
In a dark cloudy atmosphere
Moon, sun, stars seem to be very clear
Safety… bravery… oh grasped fear
In the eyes of the sky there is no tear
Just the glimmer of hope that is so near
From them you can not flee
I bitterly answered ‘what do you claim?’
She laughed and said I will achieve my aim
Until the end of my game
I trust myself and I do not feel shame
Hope -she is so strong and stout
And she is able my fears to wipe out
She laughed with her echo-voice so loud
One day in the hands of you will be found
———————————-
GIFT FOR THOSE WHOSE PARENTS ARE LOST

Here on that street my dad died
Death attacked him from an unknown side
What did his death for us hide ?
Grief and pain did for us decide
His death the hearts of our family did divide
Loss and departure were emphasized
While happiness at that moment seized
Here on that street my father drove
On the same street he was shot
By a settler who was provoked
From an innocent person his revenge he got
From an unknown origin he is derived
Responsible that in my family’s life
grief, pain and anger reside
But there are people of his religion who have tried
For us a new beginning to provide
They really appreciate the size of grief in our hearts
Monday in the afternoon was the opening of our wound
And it caused the broken hearts of our catastrophe to moan
At that moment the stagnant grief in our souls was grown
We lived in darkness with no fraction of dawn
A black tragedy for me was drawn
Like a nic in the neck… it is in the heart a wound
————————–
TO BE A GRADUATE

Have you ever felt like a person who will graduate
Who is standing on the edge of the university and life’s gate
People are coming to say ‘we congratulate’
They within me a glimmer of hope create
I am like a king who won the state
I am a person who is loved by fate
For this day I am willing to wait
All love from my heart is sent
To my parents my sisters my brothers my doctors and friends
For you I say ‘happy new year’
I wish we will the dress of happiness wear
No matter how the last days were
The principles of a new life in this modest party we declare
The black papers of our last tragedies in our lives we will tear
The bitterness of days we no longer bear
We in the eyes of future stare
Happiness and hope we can see there
But we also notice some sort of fear
I hope that peace is near
for those whom to me are so dear
You are to me my jewels
In the siege of my heart you fell
I rang my tongue’s bell
good words for you to tell
Let us together say grief farewell
grief farewell grief farewell
———————————-
BELIEVE ME WE CAN NOT DARE

Believe me we can not dare
to say that occupation is something that we can not bear
But even if we said it
they will our bodies like pieces of cloth tear
Not by human butchers
rather it has become the machine butcher’s career
Be silent my friend
and do not say whether it is cruel or fair
Because if you said this
you will be thrown in fire
—————————
IF YOU TRIED TO TURN YOUR FACE

If you tried to turn your face
In a moment you will be in the hospital as a critical case
Occupation is willing to chase
Every person who is from the Arabic race
And the steps of history trace
Occupation has no conscience
when it the bodies of Gazan children dismember
in the last December
I am torn by pain when I remember
the bodies of children trampled under the feet
of an unworthy Israeli soldier member
Dying words on their tomb door
saying war is every where
On the heads of the poor
Palestinian life will become sore
You will live in pain more and more
Let it be forever let it be forever
When will facts chant?
When will Justice on her feet stand?
When will we together
in the face of cruelty stand?
When will we our rights defend?
When will we like a bomb explode?
When will we our rights defend ?
Or shall we wait for someone to rescue us?
—————————
DO YOU KNOW

Do you know what your life is like?
Your life is a play
if you wonder I will say
what role in this life I play
a good person I may be
as a fruitful tree
slave people I can free
if they appreciate they will agree
a source of evil I contribute to life
by carrying my sharp sword and knife
I can steal a husband from his wife
And deprive a person of his life
To me you can describe
What type you want your self to ascribe
No matter you are from this or that tribe
But what really matters is you are mature and ripe