"I was content that my lot in this world
Be like that of a bird
But
Oh Lord
Even birds have homelands
To return to
But I am still flying"
Displaced from his homeland, Al-Nawab feels supremely cheated by his leaders. He could accept any suffering except the long, seemingly endless stretch of homelessness in a place where he doesn't speak the language. He feels free, like a bird, but unable to rest and reside anywhere. Beyond the bar implications of the text, Al-Nawab sounds tired. He is consicous of being tested, but awareness and willingness do not equal capability and endurance.
"I told your son who's just started playing in his cradle:
Don't fear being an orphan, grandson
He who has no father, the party will be his father
and his home"
Contradicting the narrator's struggle of "In the Old Tavern," this version appeals to belonging among a community. Perhaps his political allegiance has not been removed from him yet, or perhaps he's expressing idealism. At any rate, the narrator promises his newly orpahned grandson that he has a place and a host of people who will care for him.
"Oh my country, exhibited at the market as a morning star
They are lamenting you in the night brothels
And some revolutionaries are perfecting their manhood
Joggling at the [noise of the] drum and trumpet"
Al-Nawab's personal identity is closely tied to his national identity, but in the strict sense of belonging to home. He doesn't buy in to the lines about the great advance of his country and all that, preferring instead to keep a level-head about which changes have helped the people and which have harmed them. Among the common people, Al-Nawab observes great sadness and misery. They see their country's nationalism as a sick joke, which they can't avoid but which hurts them nonetheless.
"Now I expose/undress you
In all the capitals of this Arab World
You have killed my gaiety"
Here the narrator's loss is more intimate than more generally can be imagined in relation to political decisions. He feels personally betrayed, robbed of a content and fulfilling life by the corruption of his government. His singular purpose in writing poetry is to call attention to the government's wrongdoings and compromises.
