سافان Savannah

سافان

(إلى جاد)
 
أنت وحدكَ تصدِّقُ أننا أعدنا بناء السافانا التي التهمتها الجرافات. نفخنا معاً على أشجار الاسمنت فطارتْ مثل أوراقٍ في الريح، ثم أخذنا نفساً عميقاً ونفخنا ثانيةً، بعدما أضمرنا نيةً ذات لون أخصرَ، فعادت البريةُ كما كانت قبل مجيء الكائنات الحديدية المتوحشة. يداً بيدٍ رحنا نقفزُ كالنمور تحت سماء مؤجلة.
 
القمرُ صحنٌ من الفضَّة المجلوّة بأعشابٍ تنبتُ فقط  تحت ضوء قمرٍ تام، تلك الفضّة العتيقة التي لا تزال صالحةً لأعراس البدو. الجداتُ كسَرْنَ غلايينهن الطويلة على أحجار الرحى وبكَّرنَ في النوم لكي يريْنَ، في أحلامهن، أحفادَهن النمور. 
 
أحرى بهم أن يصدقوا لأنهم بذلك يعجنون الحلم في خبز القرابين.. يا حفيدَ النمر الكهل أعبر من هذه الطاقة التي فتحتها أحلامُ الجدات إلى موطنك المفقود.
 

Savannah

(To Jad)
 
You are the only one who believes that we have replanted the savannah which bulldozers gobbled up. Together we blew on the concrete trees and they flew away like leaves on the wind. With green thoughts in mind, we took a breath and blew again. Thus the land returned to how it was before those savage iron creatures came. Hand in hand, we began leaping like tigers under a sky deferred. 
 
The moon is a plate of silver polished with grass that only grows under a full moon, ancient silver still fit for the Bedouin’s weddings. The grandmothers tapped out their long pipes onto the millstones and went to bed early to see their tiger grandchildren in their dreams. 
 
It is better to believe and in this way knead the dream into the bread of sacrifice… O grandson of the old tiger, pass through this window, opened by the grandmothers’ dreams, to your lost abode. 
 

Savannah

(To Jad)
 
You are the only one who believes that we have replanted the savannah which bulldozers ate up. We have blown away the trees of cement, and they flew like leaves in the winds. We then took a deep breath and blew again, concealing green intentions. So the land returned to what it was before the arrival of savage iron-clad creatures. Hand in hand, we carried on jumping like tigers under a limitless sky. 
 
The moon is a plate of silver encrusted with grass that only grows under perfect moonlight. This ancient silver is still valid for the Bedouins’ wedding. The grandmothers emptied their long pipes over the millstones and went to sleep early in order to see in their dreams their tiger-like grandchildren.     
 
It is better for them to believe, as in this way they knead the dream with the bread of sacrifice…O offspring of the old tiger, pass from this energy which grandmothers’ dreams have opened to your lost abode. 
 

Atef Alshaer, the bridge translator for our workshop, told us that the poem’s title “Savannah” is also a loan word in Arabic and so it feels a little odd – slightly estranging as a choice – given the particular local intimacy of the poem itself. But this strange duality between the intimate environment and more worldly discourses seems fitting in a poem so concerned with dreaming. In the poem, a Bedouin grandfather is talking to his grandson and Atef told us that the dedicatee of the poem, Jad, is in fact Nasser’s grandson.

One the images/concepts that we discussed most passionately was this idea of a suspended or postponed sky. Eventually we settled on deferred, placing the adjective at the end of the line to reinforce its oddity and nodding towards the unusual of balance of registers that the Arabic speakers noted in the poem. We tried to maintain the equilibrium between the playful transformation of grandfather and grandson into leaping tigers and the slight ‘legalese’ nightmare of even the sky being postponable, subject to delay or bureaucratic quibbling. The poem seems to derive much of its power from paradox: if on the one hand hope comes from dreams, then there is also the sense that that hope is only a dream. Still, as one of the many urgent phrases in the poem insists, “it is better to believe”.

Edward Doegar

Original Poem by

Amjad Nasser

Translated by

Atef Alshaer with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Arabic

Country

Jordan