Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tahrir Square (rhetoric of a revolution)

For the Eid Al Adha (Islamic religious festival) I travelled down to Cairo...here are my first impressions of the post-revolutionary city through street graffiti around Tahrir Square

Mubarak is the cow...

Cow) بقرة حاحا
English Translation

All the sobbing weepers wept
At the fate of the fighting cow
And that cow is milch; she exudes a gallon’s milk
But she is robbed; by the members of her own house
And the house has its owners and eleven doors
And underground tunnels and a sea of wolves
The ogres of the house stand by day
But on a known set date; the Romans did the deed
They pushed the locks; the guards fled
The outsiders came and sucked the milk
And the cow yells and screams “O My Children”
But the children of shame, were fast asleep
The cow was oppressed, by oppression, overwhelmed
She fell into the well; the bystanders asked
“Well, why did she fall?”
She fell from fear
“From where does this fear come?”
It comes from blindness
She fell because of hunger and because of idleness
That dark fighting cow
The crying tunes of the weeper wept
At the fate of the fighting cow

Arabic Original

ناح النواح و النواحة
على بقرة حاحا النطاحة
و البقرة حلوب .. تحلب قنطار
لكن مسلوب .. من أهل الدار
و الدار بصحاب .. و حدعشر باب (11 باب )
غير السراديب .. و بحور الديب
و غيلان الدار .. واقفين بنهار
و ف يوم معلوم ... عملوها الروم
زقوا الترباس ... هِربوا الحراس
دخلوا الخواجات .. شفطوا اللبنات
و البقرة تنادي .. و تقول يا ولادي
و ولاد الشوم ... رايحين ف النوم
البقرة انقهرت .. م القهر انصهرت
وقعت بالبير .. سألوا النواطير :
طب وقعت ليه ..؟
وقعت م الخوف
و الخوف يجي ليه .. ؟
من عدم الشوف

و قعت م الجوع و م الراحة
البقرة السمرا النطاحة
ناحت مواويل النواحة
على حاحة و على بقرة حاحا

http://revolutionaryarabicpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/07/cow.html 


Super recent additions...jailed human rights journalist



Toppled King!



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