Tawfiq Sayigh (توفيق صايغ) was a Palestinian poet. He is an author of a 430-verse prose poem "A Few Questions I Pose to the Unicorn" (بضعة أسئلة لأطرحها على الكركدن Bidhat Asila Li Atrahaha Ala Al-Karkaden)
Text[]
A Few Questions I Pose to the Unicorn[]
English translation (Zahra A. Hussein Ali, 1999)[]
In our inaugural dawn,
In the pageantry of conferring names
When the legions streamed
Past the dais,
All animals, like parades, paired together.
You headed the pageantry
Without a mate.
All felt whole, contented,
Marching in uniform stride.
You led them alone
Like the horn in the middle of your head;
Trippingly, with anxious steps.
You searched with sight and sniff
For her, the never-to-be-found even
In Highest Paradise.
In the magnificent dawn,
In the sweeping pageantry,
Only you and God were solitary.
And as He sought his Virgin
You sought yours;
For centuries He pursued her,
Searched in every corner,
Felt blissful upon finding her, and transformed.
Like you, He loved virginity.
And like you, He preserved it.
A true diety and a fabulous beast;
Would the sequel differ?
He wanted her to be His love
So she became the beloved
And a mother
So she concealed Him for nine months
Then gave birth to Him as He had wished,
And she fed Him honey and milk.
A true diety and a fabulous beast.
Your endeavor was the same,
So how could the sequel differ?
Did not her consecrated blood
Seek to drink His blood
Though it was not more sanguine than your blood?
And the thirty-three years,
Are they longer in God's life span
Than the hours in your life span?
Your love for the virgin
Is God's love for her;
The two-horned's shunning her,
The one with cloven hoof,
(cont.)