In Arabic a kite and plane are the same thing, Tayaara, which means a thing that flies. So when the title says “The Child and the Kite” it could be also “The Child and the Plane” and both would be appropriate for this poem. In other words, there is an ambiguity in Arabic that is lost in translation.
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Marcel Khalifa – The Child and the Kite
There was once a little child
Playing in the village, searching for a string to fly a kite
He looked around and said, “I don’t know what that is shining”
“Look, look the plane”
“It’s coming towards me”
“It’s a big plane (kite), I don’t need a string”
“And its wings are bigger than the neighbors’ house”
His heart fluttered and flew on the wings of the plane
And the whole sky told him its secrets
He stopped in the square and called to his friends
This roar of the plane was more powerful than all the voices
The boys gathered and stopped their game
And the country shook, a story like a lie
And the roar became a big cloud of smoke, I don’t know what happened
The siren sounded
The plane carrying stories and poems
Set fire to the land and destroyed the home
It destroyed the home, destroyed the home
And flew off into to the borders
The borders that birthed me, lightning and thunder bombarded the world
The game flew away, and with it the story
And the boys became shards of the story
The story written on the village terraces
The timid village lit like a candle
And the candle shone bright, and the scream reverberated
Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah!