Out Of My Algeria Poem by Jean Sénac

Out of my Algeria
they made the prisons taller
than the schools.
They sullied the nocturnal roots
of the People,
the serious Tree
of the remote Berbérie...
They denied the certainty of our Land,
they tore apart Islam, its color,
its fantastical tribes, even the shame
that makes them live.
They denied the Vital Fire, our Flag
They exiled the humble joys of our huts
slow at the return of corn...
Blind! Blind!
On my Infinite People
they applied the whip without understanding
the power of books,
the rhythm of our blood,
our right to sacrifice,
to impatience.
Our whole body refused it.
Prisoners of their forfeiting
they listen to the dark crashes of the sticks
that mingle with the wind
following powder.
Without sight and without words
they assign the precise patrol
among raisins,
its halt under the dark pride of pines
at the detour of furious crossings,
the resumed cry of the Patriots
from which freedom falls like an eagle.