Fathi Mhadhbi
Fathi Mhadhbi, born in 1961, is a Tunisian poet and writer. He has many books and poetry collections and has actively participated in magazines and literary publications.
Fathi With arched backs, we walk backward
We had to face the storm
Mending our collective imagination
Screaming in the darkness
To distract the owl of contradictions
We had to manage the war
With a finely tuned collective sensibility
We needed more laughter
In the face of the fragility of things
We had to stare intently
At the book of death
And give a realistic touch
To the interpretation of the funeral.
**
Like a herd of deer
A medieval cheetah chases us
Panic devours our fingers with excessive greed
And the planes expose our nakedness from above
Revealing the cave of anxieties
Our frozen shadows on the walls
Our voices empty of light
Our words akin to dead seals.
**
As if we were pure clouds
Hanging on the strings of gravity
From our cracked feet
Blood drips
Christ cuts off his earlobes
And throws them out of the airplane window
And no one waves from afar.
**
We walk backward
With arched backs
Under our wrinkled skins
Time races and stumbles
And none of the Dadaist horsemen
Interpret the alchemy of death.
To the Queen
Very soon
You will lose the war
Your weary soldiers will commit suicide
One after another
Your impregnable fortress will crumble
The devil will flee from the cracks of your nails
A magpie will snatch
Your crown studded with libido gold
Clouds will fill your shattered eyes
And on your arched back
You will carry your coffin
A pitcher of black tears
Dead birds of farewell
Time will bite your sagging lips
You will cry for a long time in the ruins
Followed by a dreadful chorus
Of owls and crows
Your past full of mud and bilharzia
Your grim, grey voice
Ghosts from the Milky Way
Regret will shatter your skull
With the heel of a medieval rifle
You will cry, laugh, rise, fall
Encircled by loud applause
From the wolves of your contradictions
A blind musician will mourn you
Under an ancient tree
Thunder will strike you
With a sad mass
The black abyss
Will be your final refuge.
Dr.Salwa Gouda
Salwa Gouda is an Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic at the English Language and Literature Department at Ain-Shams University. She holds a PhD in English literature and criticism. She received her education at Ain-Shams University and California State University in San Bernardino. Furthermore, she has published several academic books, including “Lectures in English Poetry, and “Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism,” and others. She has also contributed to the translation of “The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers,” which includes poets and their poetry, philosophers, historians, and men of letters, under the supervision of UNESCO. A poetry anthology is published recently through Alien Buddha press in Arizona, USA. Additionally, her poetry translations have been published in various international magazines.
Translated from Arabic by
