They killed Hama's shepherd ya Talal !!!

The room wasn't as I expected it to be. The large outdoor terrace of the cafe was closed. Getting into the small indoor section gave me the impression of entering a secret place. I was moved form hamra's street to a place that looks like Hermel's cafe during winter time: low ceiling, low light, people in winter cloths, and a heavy cigarette smoke.

Not far away from me a woman with long dark hair and big eyes was standing.

وقفوا العرب ع سلاحهن
لمن فردت الشَعر
تمنيت حالي دهب
تاصير متل الشام
وتغر مني حلب
وماعود فيي نام

It's only from the way she holds her cigarette and her high hills that I understood she wasn't one of  Talal Haidar's poems.

People came to listen to his poetry, most of them faces I know, most of them living in Beirut, most of them form Beirut's-interland-Bekaa Valley. Most of them exited from Hamra to Hermel riverside cafes just by stepping into the room.

Poems are singing Hama, Homs, Halab and Damascus, Balback and Houran Plain.. Poems about women, coffee and mares... poems about swords, and golden bracelets.

وديت مع راعي حماه

يشفلي الطقس الشمال

قللي السني جايي هوا

 بيوَقع الخَيّال

I closes my eyes and think of this plain .. warm and sunny.. far at the horizon a woman wearing gold bracelets is walking and you can hear the sound of the gold getting closer and closer.

A man on a horse riding towards her falls, he was shoot down by a sniper. Open my eyes there is blood between Homs and Hama.

They killed Hama shepherd ya Talal.

They killed him and tanks have taken over the arab tents, they have destroyed the wheat field and broke all coffee pots. Hama's shepherd is dead. People say he was killed people say he just died, people say he rose up.

لو كان عندي فرس
لضل عالعالي
بس ندهيني
بنرل على خيالي
يا بنت راعي الغنم
هالموت مقبالي
ردوا معي البواب
جايي هوا شمالي
في ناس
قالوا قتل
في ناس
قالوا مات
في ناس
قالوا فتح عتمة خياله
وفات

There is blood on Talal Haidar's land, there is people wearing keffiehs, people we don't know but who will soon construct a Victory Arch in Damascus. A people one. A real one.

Poems are Talal Haidar's poems.