Bahrain, Land of Peace

Today I went to another in the series called “The Story of a Poem” by the National Writing Project. Today’s poem was called “Sundialed” by Dan Zev Levinson. It was a delight to listen to Zev read it, as I imagined a pastoral summer day in northern California:

The challenge to have a go for today is to write a poem using as many languages as possible. The variety of languages should add to the understanding of the poem as the meanings and pronunciations are discovered by the reader.

So here is my attempt, which incorporates a bit of Hebrew and Arabic (transliterated, along with the script), Spanish, Latin, French, and, of course, English. (With thanks to Zev Levinson for my last line, which was inspired by his poem’s last line.)

Bahrain, Land of Peace
Land of
Dos aguas
Salty and sweet
Revival draws

When we meet
شعوب Shueub
From every land
Understanding grew

Land of serving hands
שָׁלוֹם‎ Shalom to you
Vidi, stopped to pray
Yes, God; oui, Dieu

2 thoughts on “Bahrain, Land of Peace

  1. You were much more effective in your language borrowing than I was, and your poem is just beautiful. The second stanza, in particular, of “where we meet” — that drew me in as an anchor point.
    Kevin

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