Sayigh was born in 1940 in Gaza. She obtained in BA in sociology from Cairo University. She was the president of the Union of Palestinian Women and has been very active in the cause of Palestinian women. She has published a number of poetry collections, as well as a prose account of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in "The Siege". She lives in Paris.
DEPARTURE
In this moment of departure,
point your red arrows,
disarm the lightning, and open wide
the gate to my exile.
Close the sky's open face, and ride away.
I long so deeply that the shores unfold their seas
and horses bolt!
Now I'll carry the roads and palm trees in my suitcase,
I'll lock my tears in the evening's copybooks
and seal the seasons.
Let's begin our song: here is Beirut wearing you
like her own clothes.
You must sit well on the surface of her glory
abandoning tears
In her blue froth
She contains you like eternity
like the sense of beginning that comes with certainty
-How can you be dead, yet so absolutely present ?
Let the rivers abandon their skies,
and the seas dry out !
Everything in the universe has an end
except my split blood...
Each time I think of it
You remain as large as your death.
The war planes choose you, discover you, plant
their blackness in you.
From all those clouded last visions,
how will you begin the story of harvest?
We planes select you,
at the start of your sleep,
at the end of your sleep.
How often did the sky explode over you
with hatred?
How often were you taken aside?
How many massacres did you survive ?
Now you collect all the wounds, taking refuge with
death,
wearing dreams as wings.