My Birthday
Today, June 27, Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy turns 36. He is celebrating yet another birthday in prison after being arrested and detained eight years ago. Ahead of his birthday, he has written a poem.
Galal El-Behairy was arrested in March 2018 at Cairo Airport. Shortly before that, musician Ramy Essam—known as the “Singer of Tahrir Square” during the Arab Spring—had released the song “Balaha,” with lyrics by El-Behairy that criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He was later sentenced to prison in a separate case, citing, among other things, his unpublished poetry collection The Finest Women on Earth.
During his time in prison, Galal El-Behairy has been subjected to torture and systematically denied access to books, writing materials, and gifts from his family. In 2023, he went on a hunger strike for 80 days, and in September of that same year, he attempted to take his own life in prison. He survived the suicide attempt but remains incarcerated. In August 2025, he went on another hunger strike.
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Today is my birthday,
Half passed,
Half died,
Half slipped through my fingers in silence,
untouched, without a breath,
Half had passed,
Nothing remains of the day but a mirage,
reflecting in my soul’s mirror, in the body
in time that carves me slowly
Like a tombstone
A half, complete
A half, done
Yet, the rest is ultimate proof of what had withered.
It’s a night like all others,
It did not differ
but of its bleak blackness,
The prison doors are like prisons,
Only widens to narrow back again
Another dream burns between my fingers,
burns in my ribs, a bitter flame
It was my birthday tonight,
I wish I had been able to catch it
If I caught it .. unrestrained … free.
