RR

I Hardly Lost My Narcissism

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

Contributor
Bacem A. Essam

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.

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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.

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  • This is very dreamy and delicate, how beautiful.