نجمة A Star

نجمة

1

 

مَسَّنِي ضُوْءٌ

شَرَخَتُ زُجَاجَ أَحْلامِي
خَرَجْتُ مِنْ الفَضَاءْ
 
إِليَّ مِنْ بَعيدٍ
تُعبِّئُ نَجْمَةٌ تَعَبِي
تَعُجُّ إِليكِ حَجَّاً عامراً
مِنْ الهواءْ
 
وفَيَّ مِنْ خيوطٍ، كُوَّةٌ
خَضْرَاءُ، فيكِ
ولي خيلٌ - مِنْ الإِيحَاءِ
جُنْدٌ
مَنْ أَضاءْ
 
مَسَّني وخَرجْتُ
هَشَّمتُ البَياضَ كَتبتُ
خلفي أُحْرِقَتْ كُتُبٌ
بَيَاضٌ مِزَقٌ
قَنَادِيلٌ سَوَادٌ
أَشْرَقَتْ في غِيِّها، سَدَرَتْ
بنفسجَةٌ على صَدْرِ السَّمَاءْ
 
 

2

 

يَتُهَا النَّجَْمَةُ السيِّدةْ

على سريركِ، قُرْبَ لُهَاثِ أَحْلامِكِ
عَنْ كَثَبٍ مِنْ مناديلِ عِطْرِكِ
"بالضَّبطْ"
السَّاعَةَ الثَّالِثَةَ - الفَجْرَ
بعد نِهُوضِكِ مُرْتَجَّة ًببقايا نُعَاسٍ مُهَاجِرٍ
وأَرَقٍ لا يُقِيمْ
 
تَسْكُنُ - تَحْتَ المِلاءَةِ
ذِكْرَى عِنَاقٍ له شَخِيرُكِ الهادئُ
وهو يُؤكِّدُ بَوحَكِ للنومِ
بالقَلَقِ تُجَاهَ حنينَكِ فِيِهِ للمرآةْ
 
تَسْكُنُ نُطْفَةُ نُورٍ
مِنْ جَسَدٍ أَلَّهَ صَبْوَتَهُ
في الغَمْرِ، وسَمَّى ما سَمَّى
 
تَسْكُنُ تَحْتَ الوِسَادَةِ رَائِحَةٌ خَضْرَاءُ
تَخُصُّكِ فِيَّ
وتَسْكُنُ عَائِلةُ الأَسْمَاءِ النُّورِيَّةْ
للشَيْءِ الغَامِضِ
تَسْكُنُ سَيِّدَةُ الأَسْمَاءْ
تَسْكُنُ سَيِّدَةُ الأَشْيَاءْ
 

Read ‘Pendulum’ by Armenian-Turkish poet Karin Karakaşlı, translated at a @PoetryTranslate workshop.

A Star

1
 
Awoken by light, I scratch the glass
of dreams, and find myself
stepping free of shadows and silence.
 
In the distance a star was absorbing
my tiredness, and itself heading like a pilgrim
towards you, leaving blank its place in the heavens.
 
In the green pits of our being our inner
threads yearn; this radiance, that makes me feel I own
herds of horses, am as inspired as any knight –
 
what is its source? Shocked
into words, I defied the book-burners, the suffocators
of thought and feeling, all who’d censor and shroud knowledge.
 
And a violet blossomed fiercely in the bosom of the sky.
 
2
 
Star Woman,
the memory of our embrace still lives
in this bed, adjacent to your dreams
and desires, and near these handkerchiefs
drenched in your scent.
                             You woke in the dawn
                             at three exactly, drowsing,
                             still dazed…
Beneath the sounds of your breathing
lurks a worry: where is your mirror?
And this droplet of light
reflecting a passion
that found a name for everything…
 
Under the pillows also, an aroma
alive and ours – and the long list
of names we have bestowed
on this affair. Surely
a goddess lives there too, the one
who knows the names of all things.
 
 

Star

Unfortunately Hafiz Kheir's literal version of this poem is not available, for which we apologise.
 

These two poems are taken from a long sequence called ‘A Star that Looks Like Imaa’من نجمة تشبه إيما

Original Poem by

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Translated by

Hafiz Kheir with Mark Ford Language

Arabic

Country

Sudan