MEANING
When I hear about
A garden high and fertile,
For me it means: a high mountain,
Tall trees, mild weather,
Cold, sweet, running water,
Birds with many songs.
When I hear about
A desert,
All I imagine is
A flat wide plain land,
Hot, dry, with tornados
Bringing dust and mirages
But when I hear Anfal
I lose my mind with stress,
Grief and too much pain,
Because Anfal
In the 20th Century
Means the genocide
Of 180,000 innocent Kurds.
An unknown nation,
A stateless people
Who try to live free.
1992 by Yassin Aref