by Widad Ben Moussa, translated from the Arabic by Bacem A. Essam
GRATITUDE
You are as subtle as water,
On wiping off my flesh the spatter
Of the very pain register.
عرفان
لك رقة الماء
وانت تمحو عن جسدى سيرة الألم
SPRING
Your thirst: do you remember it?
There, only me could get it slaked
نبع
عطشك هل تذكره؟
لم يكن يحلو له غير نبعى
CONTRADICTION
Love would be tight
Were it ever compared
To my ineffable sentiment
تضاد
الحب ضيق جدا
أمام شساعة عواطفى
DROWNING
Into love, I deeply swim
Outward, I then climb;
Chanting in your name.
غريقة
أغوص عميقا فى الحب
أصعد إلى السطح
شادية باسمك
FLIGHT
I do NOT possess a wing to fly,
But I have, here, enough joy
Thereby I can flap up high.
تحليق
لا أملك الجناح كى أحلق
ولكنى أملك فرحى بك
كى أطير
INFINITY
“How much I love you” is not
A question for me to be asked.
Realize that I, in loving, am infinite
لا انتهاء
لا تسألنى كم أحبك
اعلم أنى نهائية فى حبى
APPETENCE
Our senses have united there
While we are weaving away for
Meeting the wildness of pleasure.
لذة
حواسنا توحدت
ونحن نسيح بعيدا
فى براري اللذة
SHELTER
Poetry is not a land for my agony.
It is rather a distant galaxy
That hosts my melancholy.
ملجأ
الشعر ليس أرضا لألمى
إنه مجرة نائية
تأوى أحزانى
PRAYER
Oh, the singularity in my heart!
Oh, the plurality in my spirit!
Guide me to the path of your paradise.
صلاة
أيها المفرد فى قلبى
الجمع فى روحى
اهدنى إلى صراط فردوسك
Bacem A. Essam holds an MA in translation (Ain Shams University). Using computer-aided tools in rendering a stylistic translation, the translator compiles a corpus of the author’s entire produce and runs a content analysis before rendering the literary translation. Bacem's research interests include literary linguistics, cognitive semantics, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and translation studies. Bacem lives and works in Cairo.
