As I woke up one day in the icy morning to make sure my efforts will dispel my plight, the old man I met from whom I had always been learning told me that time is now high for me to beware and get ready for buckling in the Arabian Island of light. With a smile on my face I kept listening to him and then I asked him if he could tell me right that everything is now set for us to fight. But then, I asked him again, where is the Enemy? Where is the Friend? The old man kept silent and then replied with a deep sigh:
“Fight the enemy within yourself first and you will know that whoever helps you in finding him out is your friend and whoever tells you not to fight him is your enemy without doubt. God help those who help themselves.”
For this, I continue to write and say:
Down! Down! my Enemy
and read not my pity and sorrow,
Lest, perhaps, you turn ignorant
and become my Friend tomorrow.
Yesterday went on and today
has gone to join it so soon
My people are down to earth
but I weep and look at the moon
That has always conferred warm light
on the sky and never told for whom.
True,
we all have dreams and fears
of sailors who have seen how
the sea and the waves turn angry
and take everything to drown our land.
Look!
Will it be of profit for you
my Enemy not to be my Friend
And help me not to help you
and act on when shaking my hand?
Farewell to arms, goodbye to fears,
to you I will never give my health.
I will give my best to life and friendship
when enmity had and has always death.
Long and tiring is the journey
to the Lighthouse yet without it
everything always means nothing.
Chokri Omri
2012
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