arabicpoetrytranslations

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

Yesterday, as I passed by a café,

I heard you, oh Iraq,

And you were there in the revolution of a vinyl record

that very much resembled the revolution of my life's orbits.

An entire lifetime was thus condensed in two moments of safety,

And even though safety no longer occupies a place in my heart,

I see it as my mother's face in tenebrous darkness,

And I hear it in her voice, both of which mesh with visions,

Lulling me to sleep.

And I see it in palm groves that inspire fear in me

should they cast their shadows when the sun sets,

And as they become crowded with ghosts that take away any child that fails to return home.

The sun is more beautiful in my homeland than in anywhere else,

And darkness -- even darkness there is more beautiful,

For it holds Iraq in its embrace,

And oh, my woe, when will I sleep?

My woe, when will I sleep...

So that I can feel upon my pillow a breeze that carries your scent from those lovely summer nights, oh Iraq?

As my frightened footfalls led me into foreign lands that feared me,

I sang the melody of your beloved soil,

And I carried it with me, with a vision of the Christ,

Dragging his cross in exile...

-- A Stranger at the Gulf - Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab

#badr shakir al-sayyab #poetry #arabic poetry #translated by me

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

The trace of the butterfly cannot be seen,

The trace of the butterfly does not cease to be.

It is the allure of the mysterious,

Enticing meaning, then departing

when the path becomes clear.

It is the delicacy of the eternal in the everyday,

A yearning for what is beyond

And a beautiful awakening

It is a speck in the light that blinks

when it guides us to the words;

Our guiding core

It is like a song that attempts

to speak, and suffices

with quoting shadows

and speaks not at all...

-- The Trace of the Butterfly - Mahmoud Darwish

#arabic poetry #mahmoud darwish #poetry #translated by me

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

I glimpsed in her lips the spectre of my grave.

-- Nizar Qabbani

نزار قباني

#nizar qabbani #translated by me

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

Mona Sa’udi, from “When the loneliness of the tomb,” in Women of the Fertile Crescent: An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women (translated and edited by Kamal Boullata).

#mona sa'udi #translated by others

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

أتعلمينَ أيَّ حُزْنٍ يبعثُ المَطَر؟

وَكَيْفَ تَنْشج المزاريبُ إذا انْهَمَر؟

وكيفَ يَشْعُرُ الوَحِيدُ فِيهِ بِالضّيَاعِ؟

“Do you know what sadness the rain brings? And how the gutters burst into sobs when it pours? And how lost the lonely feel?”

— Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, excerpt of Rain Song (tr. by Abdullah al-Udhari)

#badr shakir al-sayyab #translated by others

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

عَيْنَاكِ غَابَتَا نَخِيلٍ سَاعَةَ السَّحَرْ،

أو شُرْفَتَانِ رَاحَ يَنْأَى عَنْهُمَا القَمَرْ.

“Your eyes are like palm-groves refreshed by dawn’s breath Or terraces the moon leaves behind.”

— Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab, excerpt of Rain Song (tr. by Abdullah al-Udhari)

#badr shakir al-sayyab #translated by others

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

What are your favorite Arabic poems, if you have any?

These are some of my favorites:

An Ocean Without Shore, Ibn ‘Arabi

Fragment from Al-Buhturi’s Wolf

From the Luzumiyat of al-Ma’arri

From the Diwan of al-Ma’arri

Reality, Rabia al-Basri

Love, Rabia al-Basri

The Enchanter of Dust: Psalm, Adonis

The Wound, Adonis

I Pray Behind My Shadow, Bahija Massri Adelbi

The Spirit Bows to the Will of Love, Munir Mezyed

The Manner of Sand, Mahmood al-Braikan

Exculpation, Khalil Mutran

Revolt Against the Sun, Nazik al-Mala’ika

Myths, Nazik al-Mala’ika

Who am I?, Nazik al-Mala’ika

A Stranger at the Gulf, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

An Alphabetical Formation, Faraj Bayraqdar

A couple of fragments from Sanieh Salh

Sorrows of the Black City, Muhammad al-Fayturi

Shadows, Wadih Sa’adah

The Strange Grief, al-Shabbi

A Storm in the Dark, al-Shabbi

A Body, Al-Saddiq al-Raddi

Annihilation, Muhammad Afifi Matar

Fragments from ‘Quartet of Joy’, Muhammad Affifi Matar

Mural, Mahmoud Darwish

We Will Choose Sophocles, Mahmoud Darwish 

Clouds, Ounsi el-Hajj

Smoke Bloom, Nadia Anjuman

Boat to Lesbos, Nourri al-Jarrah

Your body is my map, Nizar Qabbani

#various poets #poems

[arabicpoetrytranslations]

‏قفي لحظةً يا حبالَ الحياة ، ولا تتركيني هنا معلقةً بالفراغِ الرهيب.

- نازك الملائكة

Stand for a moment, Ropes of Life, and don't leave me here hanging in a terrible emptiness

#nazik al-malaika #translated by others