Sound Bites | شذرات الصوت

Video script translated from Arabic by Sara Mourad

My voice within my friend’s voice; my friend’s voice within my voice; voices within my voice; the sound of voices within my voice; the sound of the voices within my voice; horns and fire within my voice; fire and ash within my voice; the silence of horns within my voice; the silence of fire within my voice; the silence of ash within my voice; sounds of silence within my voice; sounds of the silence within my voice; a voice within a voice within voices; loud noises emanating from every corner blow my head; a word within a word within words; talismans and codes, old as time; the sound originates from afar then grows louder; the underground shakes beneath me and I imagine myself standing still; the genie emerged from his bottle and started spinning around me as I try to catch his tail hoping to topple him and be done with this, but he swiftly flies away; tectonic plates are splintering; a crust of earth overlays another; violent vibrations push the sound to its limit; the genie is spinning still, and I try to catch his tail; cries for help are clear and muffled at once; I try to listen closely, yet I can’t reach the source; I search for the sound of photographs and recognize a scene snatched from other scenes; gardens within gardens; a white turban and another black; white and black banners; smoke and a raging fire and calls to prayer and bells that toll over and again…

A voice within a voice within voices

The sound of my silence; the sound of your silence; a sonic wave sneaks through the fury of violence; a frequency bends its head under crushing vibrations; 

I wonder

you are surprised;

I ache

and you hurt;

I trample the grass of the garden

and you gaze at the waves of the sea;

Raised banners ; alarm sirens across our cities; an ancient time rears its head through gunpowder; a time within time; the genie roaming around; a world above the world; an ear captures the sound between our silences; an ear listens to the sounds of sound in search for an essence there

in a garden and a grove

in what’s behind the waves

      there along the shore