In the Letter Qaf...Lies Our Power

Translation / Interpretation / Caption Text

Arabic translation:

(word at upper right corner)

Vote!

(large Arabic and Hebrew letter)

qaf

(first sentence)

For in the letter qaf is what quenches the frustration of the vengeful, so release your anger into it, that it may be an antidote --

Poet Isam al-Abbasi

(second sentence)

In the letter qaf lies our power.. in it is our dignity, in the letter qaf is our victory.. in it are our hopes. To the qaf we give our voices (votes)..to pierce (blind) their eyes with a sword of light which is drawn (ready) in our hands--

Poet Hanna Abu Hanna

(third sentence)

So vote qaf because the victory is yours, and those who are confident in this victory will not be defeated--

Poet Hanna Ibrahim

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Curator's note: This poster from the 1950's calls on people to vote for the Communist Party for the Knesset. Every political party in Israel is assigned a letter, which is written on the ballot to register a vote for a party. The Communist Party had the letter qaf (ق) which corresponded to the Hebrew letter kuf (ק), which is the first letter of the word "communism" or "communists" in Hebrew. The poets who are quoted in the poster were at the time affiliated with the Communist Party.