Nothing of what I was or w
Nothing of what I was or will be.
All pronouns dissolve.
"He" in "I" in "You."
Neither whole nor part.
No living man says to a corpse: Be me!
Elements and emotions dissolve.
I do not see my body there,
nor do I feel the surge of death,
....
Who are you, oh me?
On the road we are two,
on Judgment Day one.
Take me to the light of vanishing
so I may see my becoming in my other image.
Who will I be after you, oh me?
My body behind me or before you?
Who am I, oh you?
Shape me as I shaped you,
anoint me with almond oil,
crown me with a cedar wreath.
Carry me from the valley to a white eternity.
Teach me life in your manner,
test me as a grain in the higher world.
Help me endure the boredom of eternity,
and be merciful when you wound me and roses blossom from my veins ...
Nothing of what I was or will be.
All pronouns dissolve.
"He" in "I" in "You."
Neither whole nor part.
No living man says to a corpse: Be me!
Elements and emotions dissolve.
I do not see my body there,
nor do I feel the surge of death,
....
Who are you, oh me?
On the road we are two,
on Judgment Day one.
Take me to the light of vanishing
so I may see my becoming in my other image.
Who will I be after you, oh me?
My body behind me or before you?
Who am I, oh you?
Shape me as I shaped you,
anoint me with almond oil,
crown me with a cedar wreath.
Carry me from the valley to a white eternity.
Teach me life in your manner,
test me as a grain in the higher world.
Help me endure the boredom of eternity,
and be merciful when you wound me and roses blossom from my veins ...
Mahmoud Darwish's verses from 'The Mural' as translated into English by John Berger and Rema Hammami.
The work is an attempt to pay attention to oneself in a moment of neglect, a dance between the dualities of self and other, white and black, truth and metaphor, solidity and fluidity, life and death, the two in one space that can bring them together or separate them. In it, I was the photographer and I was the photograph.
