Poems from “Something Evergreen Called Life”

 

“قصائد من ”شيء طازج من الأزل يسمَّى الحياة

 

JULY 13, 2023


The River Stopped Its Flow

the river stopped its flow
the fish dried up & died
in open-mouthed
surprise 

for a time like forever
I came & went
on the slender cord of hope
& when love’s river stopped
I fell
astonished
open-mouthed
like fish


Who Am I?

who am I?
the echo answers
a pure fracture
two shores of the darkest sea

my heart is cracked
in two
half here
half far
adrift
searching for shade
for wholeness
for shelter but
the doors are shut
and time does not return
to heal the wound
the road is bolted against remorse
and time does not fold back
to reveal anything
& I am like
a pendulum
trapped in its frame

heart spent & full
of longing
longing
is the soul resisting
body limits

my heart is cracked
like earth rent
from sky
mirroring
from the beginning
never touching
a step or two away
lies possibility
in proximity
pillars crumble
opposites mix



Published in “Issue 6: Rivers” of The Dial

 


توقَّف النَّهرُ عن الجريان 


توقَّف النَّهرُ عن الجريان 
تيبَّستْ السمكاتُ
وماتت بدهشتها
فاغرة الفمُ

منذ عمرٍ كأنه الأبد
كنتُ أنا
أروحُ وأجيء
على حبلِ الأملِ النَّاحل
حينما توقَّف نهرُ الحب
سقطتُ
مندهشةً
وانضممتُ إلى
السَّمكات
فاغرة الفمُ


من أنا؟


من أنا؟
يُجيبُني الصَّدى
محضُ تشظي
ضفتيّ بحرٌ
أغبشَ الزُّرقة

قلبي مشقوقٌ
إلى نِصَفين
نصفُ هنا
نصفٌ في  وَطَني البَعيد
هائم
يبحث عن ظلٍّ
عن اكتمالٍ
عن سكنٍ حميم
،لكنَّ
الأبوابَ موصدةٌ
فلا الزَّمنُ يرجعُ
لمداواة الجِّراحِ
وقفل الطَّريق على
النَّدم
ولا الزَّمنُ
يطوي نفسه
ويكشِفُ عن الحُجب
وأنا
كبندولِ ساعةٍ
في إطارٍ حبيس

متعبٌ قلبي وممتليءٌ بالحنين
والحنينُ جموح الرَّوحِ
محدوديَّة الجَّسد

قلبي مشقوقٌ
كانشقاقِ الأرض
عن السَّماء
ينعكسان منذ البَدْءِ
ولا يقتربان،
خطوةً أو اثنتين
في البُعْدِ يكمُن
الاحتمال
في القُربِ يتهاوَى العَمَدُ
يمتَّزجُ الضَّدُ

“نُشرَت في العدد السادس من مجلة ”ذي دايل 


These poems are excerpted from Something Evergreen Called Life, published by Action Books.


Rania Mamoun (Tr. Yasmine Seale)

RANIA MAMOUN is a Sudanese writer and activist. She has published two novels in Arabic. Her short story collection, translated into English by Elisabeth Jaquette as Thirteen Months of Sunrise and published by Comma Press, was shortlisted for the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

Follow Rania on Twitter

YASMINE SEALE’S poems, essays, and translations from Arabic and French have appeared widely. She is the author, with Robin Moger, of Agitated Air: Poems after Ibn Arabi, published by Tenement Press. Her translations include The Annotated Arabian Nights, out now with W. W. Norton. She is a 2023-24 fellow of the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library.

Follow Yasmine on Twitter

Previous
Previous

Sins of the Salmon Kings

Next
Next

In the Ladies’ Pool