Tonight
we hear the voices of machine-guns
not death’s footsteps
Who guides the bullet to choose who dies?
The one who fires the gun ?
The bullet ?
Death itself ?
The one who dies?
Or you, hiding we don’t know where?
Or you, who we call by name?
Who will rest among us?
The sniper?
The bullet?
Or the one who stays behind to count the dead,
Or the one who waits because the sniper missed his target,
Or the one far away struck with sadness, not knowing why,
Or the one who died?
Dear universe, good people were killed by other good people’s hands
Is there a candle in this darkness?
Is there a guide for those who leave tonight so they’ll arrive at the threshold of
light?
And not at the threshold of other darknesses?
Where are we?
And who are we ?
And where is this path leading ?
Is time moving through us
While it starts and ends with us?
Will it leave with us to reach a different time?
Dear universe, I would like to swim in you like an invisible seed
Inaudible too
But felt
I would like to leave this place
I would like to climb toward you, toward you
في هذا اللَّيل من سَيمُوت؟
تُسمَعُ أصواتُ الرشَّاشَاتِ في هذا الَّليلِ،
و لا صوتَ لأقدامِ الموت
مَن يُوجِّهُ الرصَّاصةَ لتختاَر مَن وجبَ عليهِ الموتُ؟
أمِ الرَّصَاصَة؟ أمِ المَوت؟ أم مَن يَموت؟ الرامِي؟
أم أنت القَابِعُ لانعرفُ أين ونُنادِي باسمِك؟
من منَّا سَيرتاح ؟ الرَّامي؟ أَمْ الرَّصاصة؟
أم مَن سيبقى ليُحصيَ عددَ الأموات؟
أم ذاكَ الذي ينتظرُ كي يُخطِئَه الرصاصُ؟
أمِ البعيدُ الذي يُلِمُ به حزنٌ، ولا يَعلمُ شَيئاً؟ أم من مَات؟
أيُّها الكونُ ، يُقتَلُ الطَّيبون بأيدي الطِّيبين
هل في هذا العَتمِ من شَمعة؟
هل في هذا الَّليلِ من مُرشدٍ للسَّائرين كي يَبلُغوا عتبةَ النُّور
لا عَتبةَ ظُلمةٍ أُخرى؟
أينَ نحنُ؟ ومن نكونُ ؟ وإلى أينَ السبيل؟
هل يدورُ الوقتُ دورتَه عَلينَا
فيَبتَدي بِنا وينتَهي بِنا؟
هل يرتَحِل بِنا إلى وقتٍ لآخر؟
أَيُّها الكونُ ، أريدُ أن أسبحَ بكَ كَذرةٍ لا تُرى
ولا تُسمَع، تُحسُّ
أريُد الخروجَ خارجَ هذا
أريدُ الصعودَ إليكَ إليك
Fadwa Suleimane was an actor in theatre, film and television in Syria until she joined the uprising for citizens’ rights and regime change in 2011. As a public figure, a member of an Alawite family, and a moving speaker for the revolution, she became quickly well known, too well known to remain in Syria. She came to France as a political refugee in 2012. Her first book of poems, As the Moon Rises, was published in Arabic in 2013, and translated into French by Nabil al-Azan. A second collection, In The Dazzling Darkness, was published in a bilingual Arabic-French edition in 2017. Fadwa Suleimane died of cancer in Paris in 2017.
Marilyn Hacker is the author of seventeen poetry books as well as two written in collaboration with Deema K. Shehabi and with Karthika Naïr respectively. She has translated twenty-two books by French and Francophone poets including Samira Negrouche and Vénus Khoury-Ghata. She held the Edward Saïd Chair at the American University of Beirut in 2019-2020. She lives in Paris. Her most recent book is Calligraphies (W.W. Norton, 2023).
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Marilyn Hackerhttps://rustedradishes.com/author/marilyn-hacker/
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Marilyn Hackerhttps://rustedradishes.com/author/marilyn-hacker/
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Marilyn Hackerhttps://rustedradishes.com/author/marilyn-hacker/
