Literature | Testament | Poetry

The poet

Mariam Qawwash

Maryam Qawwash (1988) is a Palestinian poet who has published five poetry collections and has received numerous regional and international literary awards.

 

 

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Testament

I heap the mirage upon the face of our perished hopes!
I heap, I heap…
And I am certain that after the wars have passed, I will appear as myself,
I will appear like God’s wheat:
A hand filled with our days
And a deep void on the edge of the bridge that sang
Of the dream, then shattered.

The dew says to the dew:
“Did you see the cloud pour down
After the ash receded?”
The dew replies when the face of the water splits:
“I saw the cloud stretch over the earth’s shoulder the grass of eternity tomorrow
And how far yesterday is now, and how near
The face of the echo!
And without intent, I become dew
My blood becomes a sphere of sparks
My heart becomes a telegram or a blade
The stalks of grain become once more a rifle of embers, waving to the passersby
My hand becomes today a cloud, like Gaza, when it writes for the universe
An immortal legend.”

The martyr says: “I have left my name… I have left the feathers
The lightness of flight revives me, so I float in the absence of gravity
I walk to the spot of the sun where my hands embrace a cold lemon.”

Heavy is the night over the cloak of Ibn al-Athir
Heavy, and the historian’s night begins from my lightness in ascending
To the sun’s kohl, even to its forelock in the book of the final question
Shall I ask the reader of this testimony: How will my face begin
If I approach God, filled with my blood?
Do you know
Why I ascended? Because the fall is dreadful
If my children ascend, gaze at the star of the sky
And do not watch the earth
Do not lick the mud
Do not fix your eyes on a hole in the scars of the slopes
And turn your forehead toward the sky

Perhaps I will fly before you
Perhaps the slopes will fly behind you
Perhaps the birds will pull the arm of the prisons
And go after you like branches
Perhaps… perhaps
I will see you on the lightness of the text
An olive, an olive, ascending!

The historian says: “Wait… we will delete from the text of this book
Our excess eloquence.”

Translated from Arabic by

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.