Sabreen lyrics, "Here Come the Doves" (Hussein Barghouthi)

The Gypsy
I'm really a Gypsy
My job is to dance
To entertain whose who are sad
I tell fortunes for a penny-and-a-half
And I tell fortunes for the oppressed
Sitting around the hubbly-bubbly
Elbow-leaning by the fire
A boiling midnight fire
I eat only with the sweat of my brow
I'm no tyrant and no horse thief
My job is to dance
An off-beat dance
My beard is long and supports a family
And the prettiest girls are Gygpsies

I live on old things
Selling horses and antiue coins
Silver ankle-bracelets and tales
I've stood so often by prison gates
I danced and feared and said: it'll pass
I'm really a Gypsy
this is my fate
I read fortunes
In people's palms

Thirty Stars
Thirty stars twinkling over a cypress valley
Thirty stars twinkling
My heart is an open caern
If only the pretty one
Would understand
That the moon is wounded
But hope is power

Thirty stars falling over a cypress valley
Thirty stars falling
Half of a lifetime falling
And the days have changed
And dreams exchanged
And a cypress tree has broken

My heart is an open cavern
If only the pretty one
Would understand
That the moon is wounded
But hope is power

Ramallah 1989
Sometimes I walk alone
In the middle of the night
And the night is like a river
My hands in my pockets
I whistle, or smoke
In so much bitterness
The whole town is shuttered
No one around
But the void
And the army
And the wind playing
With the street lamps
Or in my hair
I stand by the fence
My chin in my hand
I stand and think, how?
All that's left of a lifetime
Is a month merely
Yet I walk, whistle or smoke
In so much bitterness

The Pirate
You are a rose
With a very thin waist
The world, rose, is made
Of strong and weak
And you are soft
Like chewing gum
And I'm an old Turkish pirate
I have a ship
Inside the harbor
The harbor is buying and selling and theft
The harbor is
Wheat and rice and water
And God has forgotten us
Inside the harbor
And I'm an old Turkish pirate
With a pipe in my hand
And a sheep-skin on my back
Carrying silver and coins
I have a ship, forgotten by God
And God has forgotten us
Inside the harbor
Come, rose, come with me
The sea is my father, keep company with me
For I'm just an old Turkish pirate
My intentions are good
And my heart is clean.