أنْتَ مِنْهُم ؟! Are You the One?

أنْتَ مِنْهُم ؟!

ليس كثيراً ما أهْتَمُّ
إلاَّ بامرأةٍ طعمُهَا لا يكادُ يُرَى
إلاَّ بِمَنْ يُتْبِعُ الخطوةَ
إلاَّ بنفسي - أراني
أَتَجَسَّدُ في الأَشياءِ
أرُوحُ بينَهَا كالهائمِ في ذِكْرَى
أقتربُ من حَدْسِ الخروجْ
........................
ما رأيْتُ مَرَاكِبَ في زينةٍ
تُبْهِجُ ليلَ العين
رؤوسَ أشجارٍ - إِلاَّ من العتمة
ما سكَنْتُ إِلى طيفِ عِطْرٍ
وما بَقِيْتُ على خاطرْ
....................
سُوقٌ عظيمةٌ
تَبْلَعُ صوتَ الفأسِ
صمتٌ بَلَغَ الجُّذُورْ
 
النَّملُ لا يهتمُّ بامرأةٍ
تحرقُ تاريخهَا بينما تُوْلَدُ
مَنْ أَضَاءَكَ يا ماضي
يُضِيؤُكَ يا قَادِمُ
لا يحرقُ المراكبَ أو يُلَوِّثُ القلوبْ؟!.
 
 
 

Are You the One?

I only notice
a woman who gets no notice
someone who follows my footsteps
I see myself
multiplied -
delving in images, drifting in memories
intuiting exodus
.........
 
I am blind to boats enameled with light for show
Even when light graces the treetops,
their hearts are dark
I am elusive as perfume, a vagrant gust of wind,
and no one remembers me
.........
 
A great souk  
 
A great souk
swallows the sound of a scythe
with a silence entrenched in its roots
 
Worms ignore a woman
who burns her history while she is born anew
Whoever lights up the past
sets the future ablaze
with a light that will neither burn boats nor taint hearts
 

Are You One of Them?!

It is rare when I care,
Except for a woman whose taste I do not see
Except for someone who traces my steps
Except for myself when I see it
I embody things
I delve in them as somebody lost in memory
I come close to the intuition of exodus
-------
 
I have not seen boats adored with light
It brightens the eye
Lights the fronts of the trees - inside there is darkness
I have not embodied except a perfumed gust of wind
And I did not stay in the memory of anyone.
---
 
A great market
 
A great market
It swallows the sound of the scythe
Silence entrenched in the roots
 
The worms do not care about a woman
Who burns her history as she gives birth
O the past, who lit you
That who is coming, you have been lit
With light that does not burn the boats or pollute the hearts?!
 
 
 

Original Poem by

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Translated by

Atef Alshaer with Sarah Maguire Language

Arabic

Country

Sudan