from thefreeonline on 1st Nov 2023 by Literary Hub / Hiba Abu Nada
A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation
Hiba Abu Nada, 32, wrote and published her final poem ten days before Israeli bombs killed her and many others on October 20, 2023, in Gaza. She had a B.A in organic chemistry and a master’s degree in clinical nutrition.
In her short life she managed to publish one novel, Oxygen is Not for the Dead. The speaker in Abu Nada’s final poem is an inner I, probably the voice of God welling up inside. Here is an excerpt:
I shelter you
and the children who
are sleeping
as chicks in the lap
of their nest
they don’t walk
in their dreams
because death
towards the house
walks
….
I shelter you
from wound and woe,
and with seven verses
I shield
the taste of orange
from phosphorus,
the color of clouds
from smoke.
Death
Her last post online was on 8 October 2023, when she wrote[12]
“Gaza’s night is dark apart from the glow of rockets, quiet apart from the sound of the bombs, terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer, black apart from the light of the martyrs. Good night, Gaza.“
On 20 October 2023, she was killed in the Israel–Hamas war, during an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force, which hit her home in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. She was 32.[13][14]
Works
- الأكسجين ليس للموتى [Oxygen is not for the dead: a novel] (in Arabic). دائرة الثقافة، حكومة الشارقة،, al-Shāriqah. 2017. ISBN 978-9948-23-314-5. OCLC 1032289333 – via Wikidata: Q123139804.
Author Abdalhadi Alijla wrote on Twitter, “With great sadness we mourn one of the most talented Gaza feminist poet and novelist, Heba Abu Nada. Her novel named, ‘Oxygen is not for the dead’. She wrote yesterday,’If we die, know that we are content and steadfast, and convey on our behalf that we are people of truth.’…….. Oh gosh Heba.”
Related
Gaza in Paradise: The Tragic Story of Palestinian Writer Hiba Kamal Abu Nada
2023-10-22 12:31:15 We are in heaven now. A new city will be built there. Those who sing about eternal love there will be Gazans. These are the lines Palestinian writer Hiba Kamal Abu Nada wrote on her Facebook timeline before she was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. Gaza…October 22, 2023
In “world”
Gaza’s Lost Voice: Remembering Hiba Kamal Abu Nada and Her Cultural Legacy
2023-10-22 08:19:35 22 October 2023, 01:49 PM IST Hiba Kamal Abu Nada PSocial media has taken over the lines written by Palestinian writer Hiba Kamal Abu Nada on her Facebook timeline before she was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza. “We are now in the high heavens, building a…October 22, 2023
In “world”
Remembering Hiba Abu Nada: Gaza Under Attack – Poetic Reflections and Unbreakable Spirit
2023-10-21 17:19:52 Doha: Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. The lines written by Hiba facing death are going viral on Arab social media. Looking at the people of Gaza who are caught in Israel’s attack, Hiba wrote:”We are now in seventh heaven. A…October 21, 2023
In “world”
Hiba Abu Nada Palestinian poet dead at age 32
Eight Micropoems by Hiba Abu Nada
We are in Gaza before God,
Between an martyr and a witness on the Liberation,
and we are all waiting for where we will be,
We are all waiting for your promise of truth!
□
If we die,
know that we are content and steadfast,
and let them know that we are the righteous!
□
Whenever a line is crooked on the map of Palestine
Between the cities, the bullets are corrected.
Eraser for kids, cities correct mistakes with bullets,
Gaza for example.
□
The wish that we, the people of Gaza,
Know; Everyday I used to choose your senses,
why am I wearing a jilbab and you wearing a shoroud?
An the occasion has changed!
I’m going to die and you’re going to heaven!
What a loss, I wish we together!
□
When we go to our Lord,
we will tell him to answer at
the Arabs and the brothers in
the second division of the homeland first.
□
It’s like this, we are all in a open field,
Snails are exhausted from the siege
and death carries a huge barge and waves
it at us left and right,
We all die and the field is empty and the Snails fly!
□
This night will be difficult we will be cut of them
all the causes of the earth,
and we will not be cut off from the causes of the sky,
In God’s farewell Gaza one by one.
□
No time for big funerals and proper goodbyes,
No time for much time,
There’s a sensational rocket coming,
We’ll settle for a sneaky kiss on the forehead
and a quick goodbye and wait for the new death,
No time for goodbyes…!
Hiba Abu Nada
Donald
09:35 26.10.2023
A misguided heartless Netanyahu, settlers, religious zionists, and Kahanists are having one goal, to kill Palestinians.
5
Jeff
09:31 26.10.2023
I think it is time to resolve the Israel-Palestine bloodshed of decades by implementing the UN resolution 181 (II) when the assembly decided to partition Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish with Jerusalem placed under a special international regime on 29th November 1947.
4
Anna
04:25 26.10.2023
Oh the sorrows! I can’t sleep at all. First week, I was consumed by horrors happened to the people of the South. Slowly, pictures of dead Gaza children creeped in. Now I feel my heart destroyed by both, by need to eradicate Hamas and need to save those babies, by thoughts of the Israeli captives in Gaza and thoughts of Gazan captives in Gaza, by increasing anti-Semitism and terrible chanting heard from the western protesters and by settlers being allowed to kill and assault Palestinian villagers in West Bank.
I feel my souls gone dark. How do we persevere?
Reply to comment
Patty
16:28 26.10.2023
Anna
You are not alone Anna. I feel my soul and the world has gone dark. All that is left is to cry out for compassion and safety for the children and mothers on both sides of this horrific desecration of life and all living things.
julie
19:02 26.10.2023
Anna
I feel a stone in my chest.
Nora
00:28 30.10.2023
Anna
I feel the same, and it’s awful to be completely powerless in the face of all this suffering. It’s eating me alive, and I just don’t understand why so many people (from many perspectives) seem to think the solution to all this is to inflict more pain and trauma. You aren’t alone.
3
Federica
00:59 26.10.2023
Thank you so much for such good journalism. I will read Abu Nida’s book to honour her memory. Everything is happening is unbelievable and the entire world is letting it happen consciously. We are all guilty: who does the strikes, who does nothing or wait to do something tomorrow. I was ashamed to be a Eu citizen so many times, but this is the biggest one, I really have no words and I feel such a powerlessness as never before. We count nothing, they do whatever they want. At least you in Israel can write article like this one on Haaretz which is a serious newspaper, in Eu it is very difficult if you are desperate for what is happening in Gaza you are immediatly labelled as antisemite and you cannot speak your mind freely. Even jew people in Eu cannot do it if they are outraged for Israel governament’s decision, they are silenced. This widespread madness must end, what is happening in Gaza will be a shame never forgettable in History.
2
Mike1960
21:54 25.10.2023
Heart breaking. No words. Rest in peace little childeren.
The Free 