by Adnan Al-Sayegh

We would have gone on building these lands
As God wanted in his Babylonian dream
Water and prayers rippling over the steps of its hanging gardens
But they destroyed us
Built a prison from our dried blood
And called it a homeland
Then said: be grateful for your country

- Adnan Al-Sayegh -

Iraqi poet, born in 1955,
sentenced to death in 1996 for his poem 'Uruk's Anthem',
lives in London.

Adnan Al-Sayegh

Adnan al-Sayegh, EXTRACTS FROM URUK'S ANTHEM
© Long Poem Magazine