انا والشعر Poetry and I

انا والشعر

كُل الْخَطِيْئَةِ أَنِّي لَم أَكُن حَجَرَاً
    وَأًن هَم بَنِي دِنْيَاي لِي أَرَق
وَأًن لِي فِي فَضَاءٍ الْحَرْف مُدْرَعاً
    أَسْلُو بِه كُلَّمَا نَاءَت بِي الْطُّرُق
وَلِي حَقِيْبَة شِعْر ظَلْت أَحْمِلُهَا
    فِيْهَا مِن الْأَرْض طَعْم الْأَرْضِ وَالْعَبَق
فِيْهَا مِن الْطَّلْح أَغْصَان مُشَاكِسَة
    فِيْهَا مِن الْنَّخْل أَفْنَان لَهَا عَذْق
رَسَمَت كُل حَكْايّا الْحُب فِي لُغَتِي
    أَلْوَانُهَا الْطَّيْف وَالْعُنَاب وَالشَّفَق
وَقُلْت هَاتُوْا مِن الْأَوْتَار أَجْمَلُهَا
    لِيُعرِف الْكَوْن كَيْف الْلَّحْن يَنْبَثِق
لِيَعْزِف الْلَّحْن أَنْغَاماً مُهَوَّمَة
    لِيُنْصِف القَلْمُ الْمَوْتُورَ مَن عَشِقُوْا
دِنْيَاي هَذَى حُرُوْف جَد مُثْقَلَة
    وَرِيَشَة حِبْرُهَا مُسْتَنْفِذ قَلْق
وَرِيَشَة حِبْرُهَا مُسْتَنْفِذ قَلْق
    شَوْق الْمُحِبِّيْن أَتْلُوَه وَأَحْتَرِق
 

Poetry and I

The sin is that I wasn't a stone
     And the troubles of the world make me sleepless
And I shield myself with poetry
     And it keeps me company when I'm far from home
And poetry is my satchel that I will always carry with me
     It holds the taste and fragrance of the earth
It holds thickets of prickly branches
     It holds palm fronds loaded with dates
It paints all the stories of love in my language
     Its colours form the spectrum from grape to dawn
And I said bring the most beautiful of stringed instruments
     So the universe may know how music flows
And play its soothing melody
     That brings justice to those who are in love
Letters burden this world of mine
     Trouble leeches ink from the quill
Trouble leeches ink from the quill
     When I read of the longing of lovers I burn
 

This was a particularly thorny poem to translate – well worth the effort – that took the whole two hours of one workshop to complete.

If you compare the literal and final versions, you’ll probably be able to make sense of how we got from one to the other in most cases.

‘Branches of petulance’ was translated as ‘acacia’ by an Arabic dictionary, which is how we reached ‘prickly branches’ because the acacia tree is famous for its sharp thorns.

Another long discussion ensued about how to translate ‘grape and twilight’. Although the Arabic word tends more towards ‘dusk’, we felt that we wanted to convey the idea of poetry forms the whole of the spectrum; which we felt that using ‘grape’ (violet) and ‘dawn’ (red) achieved.

Another tricky line was ‘Worldly affairs are a guide of the letters/ characters very grave’, which ended up as ‘Letters burden this world of mine’. And then ‘Feather and ink drained concern’ which we translated as ‘Trouble leeches ink from the quill’.

It was a real pleasure to translate our first poem written by a Mauritanian poet and we look forward to working on more of Mbarka Mint al-Barra’s poems.

Poetry and I

Every sin that I was not a stone
       and if they, sons of worldly matters [are] for me insomnia
And if for me there is a benefit of letters armed
       its style whenever the way/route is distant for me
And for me poetry is a valise I continued to carry. 
       In which is some earth, the taste of the earth and fragrance
And in it clusters of branches of petulance
       In it the palm branches with their bunches of dates
She painted all the tales of love in my language
       Her colours are the spectrum: both grape and twilight
And I said: Bring of the strings the most beautiful
       To know how the universe melody proceeds
To play the melody sounded soporifically
       To do justice to the pen bereft of the one who adored
Worldly affairs are a guide of the letters/characters very grave
       Feather and ink drained concern
Feather and ink drained concern
       Longing lovers read out and burn
 

Original Poem by

Mbarka Mint al-Barra’

Translated by

Joel Mitchell with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Arabic

Country

Mauritania