Wednesday Poetry: Mahmoud Darwish's 'The Second Olive Tree'

She who teaches soldiers to lay down their rifles / And re-educates them in tenderness and humility: Go home

We originally ran this translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s “The Second Olive Tree,” by Marilyn Hacker, on Land Day, 2022.

The Second Olive Tree

By Mahmoud Darwish

Translated by Marilyn Hacker

The olive tree does not weep and does not laugh. The olive tree

Is the hillside’s modest lady. Shadow

Covers her single leg, and she will not take her leaves off in front …