From Lullaby by Henrik Nordbrandt (1945 – 2023)
Little child of war, what suits you best:
A tattered blanket?
A plywood coffin?
A lifejacket?
When the Danish poet Henrik Nordbrandt died last January, I remembered his poem Lullaby. He wrote the poem as a reaction to photos he had seen of Aylan Kurdi, the three year old Syrian boy whose body was found on a Turkish beach. Aylan drowned during his family’s attempt to get to Europe in 2015.
In early February 2023, I decided to write a single verse from Lullaby. It was completed on 26 February, on the same day the Italian Rainews website featured a shocking headline which translates to: 45 migrants drowned, among the dead many children and even a newborn baby.
English translation by (If you know the translator, please let me know)
Arabic translation by Mustafa Ja’far