If I can use sorrow as the scale
To weigh life and death
For this is a routine occurrence
In every corner of Jerusalem
However, I have never given up
My denunciations of violence
And my longing for peace
I thought that bullets
Would forever be relegated to yesterday
Yet, just beyond the Isolation Wall, this very day
The outcries of children
Are drenched with blood
Never again can I believe in a supreme creative force
Because the cycle of violence
Has reduced our hopes a thousand times
To one single despair
The history of this city
Seems destined to be like this
Ever since its day of birth
Treachery and hatred have kept people company
Even stroking a stone here
Means stroking human’s tears
(for when we listen to stones here
we can hear only weeping)
I don’t know
What is found on the last page
In the sacred book of Jerusalem
But I do know
In the ancient city of Jerusalem
Between hope and despair
There is only one road to choose
—The road of peace!