Declaration of Liberation

Declaration of Liberation Eman Odeh

Long no more, ache no more your Caged Bird sings again your land’s simsims grows again your sentence in the Diaspora comes to end

The prisoner escapes his eternal exile He longs to visit his family’s well though his mind is still confined to shackles of bliss and happiness entwined The Émigré emerges from her flight and she enters the borders of Yafa she feels warmth so sweet, and sun so bright warmth she had not known to be deprived of all her life

The returnees, once refugees, sit on the meadow’s hills and sing songs of ecstasy their ancestors once sung; Ala Dalouna, Ala Dalouna, Oh damned expatriation; my land’s embrace is sweeter.

And so the natives gathered to reclaim what was once theirs, and the Fighters declare: Oh land, You Shall Be Free! The Caged Bird sings again. And the land of Canaan rises, Amen.