Eyes Of Al Khalil

Palestine is not easy to be told.

"Eyes of al-Khalil" is a series of portraits I took during my walks and talks in al Khalil.

In the heart of Occupied Palestine, I captured the eyes of those who are the oldest witnesses of the never ending Nakba. Those who resist to the everyday occupation, teaching life, struggle and dignity to the world. The eyes of Palestine.

Scroll the mouse to read the beautiful words of the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish, from the poem "A lover from Palestine" "عاشق من فلسطين."

Your eyes are a thorn in my heart

Inflicting pain, yet I cherish that thorn

And shield it from the wind.

I sheathe it in my flesh, I sheathe it, protecting it from night and agony,

And its wound lights the lanterns,

Its tomorrow makes my present

Dearer to me than my soul.

And soon I forget, as eye meets eye,

That once, behind the doors, there were two of us.

Your words were my song

I tried singing

But winter replaced the spring

Your words, like the sparrow, flew away

Like the sparrow who left our doors

After you

Our mirrors broke-sorrows engulfed us

We picked the splinters of sound

And only learned to lament the fatherland

We shall plant it together

Over the breast of a guitar

Play it over the roofs of our tragedy

To disfigured moons and rocks

But I have forgotten

I have forgotten your voice

Was it my silence

Was it my silence or

Your departure

That rusted my guitar?

I saw you at the mouth of a cave

Hanging your orphan's rags

I saw you in the stalls, in the streets

Warming yourself by the fire

I saw you in the lamentations of misery

In blood dripping from the sun

In the salt of the sea and the sand

And yet

You were as beautiful as the earth

As children

I swear

From my eyelashes, I shall weave you

A kerchief

With words, sweeter than honey

And kisses I shall write:

And kisses you were

And so, you will remain.

Come to me wherever you are

Whatever you have become

And return colour to my cheeks

And meaning to my being

Return and take me into your eyes

Take an olive branch

Take a verse of my tragedy

A toy

Take a stone from our house

So that our descendants

Will remember their way home

Palestinian are your eyes

Palestinian is your name

Palestinian your thoughts-dreams

Palestinian your kufiya, your body

Your feet

Palestinian the words-the silence

Palestinian the voice

Palestinian in life

Palestinian in death

I carried you in my diaries

Inspiration for the fire of my words

The food for my thoughts

And in your name I shout in the valleys:

Invaders' horses! - I met them

Though the times have changed

Beware-beware hooves and stones

I destroyed the big idols

The thunderbolt has struck the flint

I shall fill the expanses of sham

With my songs

In your name, I have shouted to the enemy:

If I sleep

Let maggots eat my flesh

Ants cannot breed eagles

And the snake hatches only snakes

Long ago

I turned away the invaders' horses

Deep in my soul!

I know

I will turn them away again

Photo-Story exhibition at Esc Atelier, Rome, March 2014