A mirror for the Twentieth Century

This is another poem from that inspiring book that I talked about in my earlier post. A book called “Modern poetry of the Arab world” translated by Abdullah-al Udhari. This time the poem is by Adonis. I really like this poem but Im not sure I quite understand what he was trying to say, Kate and I both have two completely different interpretations of this poem. Perhaps you can tell us what you get out of it?

A coffin bearing the face of a boy

A book

Written on a belly of a crow

A wild beast hidden in a flower

A rock

Breathing with the lungs of a lunatic:

This is it

This is the Twentieth Century.