A haiku. Three lines. One moment.
In this episode of Musical Poetry, the same poem is spoken across multiple languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Persian.
The journey moves toward the Middle East, ending in a quiet Persian stanza where only one word remains:
Sahar – dawn.
This multilingual poem reflects on current tensions in the region, but ultimately points to something deeper: a shared human longing for light after darkness.
Come and listen.
One Dawn — Many Tongues
Missiles cross night skies,
Oil waters choke the silence,
the desert waits for dawn.
—
Raketen durch die Nacht,
Ölwasser würgt die Stille,
die Wüste wartet auf Morgen.
—
Missiles dans la nuit,
les eaux de pétrole étouffent le silence,
le désert attend l’aube.
—
Missili nella notte,
le acque del petrolio soffocano il silenzio,
il deserto attende l’alba.
—
Misiles cruzan la noche,
las aguas del petróleo ahogan el silencio,
el desierto espera el alba.
—
Tilim chotzim layla,
mei ha-neft chonkim et ha-dmama,
ha-midbar mamtin la-shachar.
—
Gere avrin lelaya,
maya d’nefta chanqin shalya,
madbara maska l-safra.
—
Sawārīkh taʿbur laylan,
miyāh an-naft takhnuq as-samt,
as-sahraʾ tantazir al-fajr.
—
Moshak-hâ dar shab,
sokut bar kavir,
sahar.
Michael Appelt 
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