الممر The Corridor

الممر

*(الممر المؤدي إلى غرفة العمليات في مشفى بحلب)  
 
الذئبُ في المَمَر 
 
الروحُ الهائمةُ 
 
في الموضعِ الذي يلي المَشْرَحةَ 
 
حيثُ الكحولُ أقلَ نفوذاً 
 
والمارةُ لا يَمُرون 
 
إلا ورؤوسهُمْ مَحْنِيةٌ. 
 
* 
 
دعْ أربطةَ الشاشِ تكْرُجُ في الصالةِ 
 
واتبعْ نقطة الدمْ 
 
* 
 
المرضى من القسوةِ 
 
بقعةُ الدهنِ الحامضةُ على السرير 
 
* 
 
الذئبُ في الممر 
 
ظلّهُ على الحائطِ 
 
يجرحُ البنتَ الصغيرة والجدةَ 
 
* 
 
لاتضعْ قميصكَ الملوثَ تحت رأسكَ 
 
لا تسألْ لماذا تبكي المرأةُ خلفَ الباب 
 
* 
 
الذئبُ في الممر 
 
أوقفوا الموسيقى 
 
.. 
 
.. 
 
إنه يموتْ. 
 

The Corridor

(A corridor that leads to the operating theatre of a hospital in Aleppo)
 
The wolf in the corridor –
like a stray soul
in the recovery room
where antiseptics don’t work
and passers-by
only pass by with heads bowed
 
                        *
 
Let bandages unroll in the waiting room
Follow the drops of blood
 
                        *
 
They are sick with cruelty
Rancid fat on the bed
 
                        *
 
The wolf in the corridor –
its shadow on the wall
wounds the little girl and the grandmother
 
                        *
 
Don’t rest your head on a dirty shirt
Don’t ask why the woman is crying behind the door
 
                        *
 
The wolf in the corridor –
Stop the music
…
…
He is dying
 

The passageway

(The passageway that leads to the surgery room in the Aleppo Hospital)
 
The wolf in the passageway
The delirious soul
In the place following the operation
Where alcohols are not that effective
And the passengers do not pass
Except with their heads bowed.
 
*
 
Let the bandages roll in the salon
And follow the drop of blood
 
*
 
The sick from harshness
The patch of fat on the bed
 
*
 
The wolf in the passageway
Its shadow on the wall
It wounds the little girl and the grandmother
 
*
 
Do not put your dirty shirt under your head
Do not ask why the woman is crying behind the door
 
*
 
The wolf in the passageway
Stop the music
…
…
He is dying.
 

Although Atef’s literal translation is ‘the passageway’ we settled on ‘the corridor’ because it’s a space indoors and ‘a passageway’ can also mean ‘an alleyway’ or an outside passage. Similarly, we went with ‘operating theatre’ and ‘recovery room’ because those are the equivalent terms in english, and were Fouad to be a surgeon in the UK, those would be the terms he and his colleagues would use. It was for the same reason that we chose ‘antiseptics’ rather than ‘using alcohols’ in Atef’s literal; (as Wikipedia says, ‘alcohols, usually ethanol or isopropanol, are sometimes used as a disinfectant, but more often as an antiseptic (the distinction being that alcohol tends to be used on living tissue rather than nonliving surfaces.’).

We shifted the negative of passers-by not passing by into the positive of ‘passers-by only passing-by’ because it sounds less awkward.

We’ve not translated a poem that uses medical terms before and it was very helpful having Fouad’s friend, and fellow doctor, Norbert Hirschhorn, with us. For example, Bert pointed out that ‘the patch of fat on the bed’ was a sign of patients being neglected.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Fouad Mohammad Fouad

Translated by

Atef Alshaer with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Arabic

Country

Syria