نجـــوم الغانــــم
Nujoom Alghanem
Kingdom of Doubts
Behind this evening
Where the star is perplexed as to
from which lantern it should look
and from which door it should pass,
behind this evening
I glimpsed dreams with sunken eyes
Waving with tired arms
Before placing their dress on their shoulders
And disappearing in the dark
Like a bird
Frightened by the wind
OOOOOOOOOOh
It is the scream
Coming closer to me and without knowing for whom
It goes back
I let off my petrified butterfly
And the swish of my dress follows me
assured
that I did not betray the companionship
Will I return?
Is this a vision or a trap
The directions are woven by flashes
A notch in the night
Jumps like a wick and a doze
And the dress behind me is like a blade that scrapes the paths
Shall I return?
Here
Rub your eye sockets with this bread
Who is it?
Not before the water writhes
And the moon becomes dry
Who is it?
You will only hear the voice ripped like a knife
Tired by time
The birds are on their branches
Dance frozen in circling the dead trees.
Come
so I would warm the cold in you
No…No
The screams vibrate in my senses
and the swish of the dress recedes,
my body is a stick that bounces between two unknown palms
My eyes are white clouds..
Who is it?
I hear the paths strike my ears
I loosen my fingers from my face
There a pigeon rolls its egg
On top of my chest
And my tongue circles like an ancient pendulum
Behind that evening …
Correction:
At dawn
I tied my bundle and went out
In the companionship of the storm
the houses sunk in front of my eyes, the edges of the earth trembled…
I became like an old tortoise on the face of a rough planet nothing
Between me and the sky except a strong wind and clouds decorated with diamonds.
Suddenly one of the clouds turned into a woman who proceeded towards me
And I ran in search of shelter, I was struck by what resembles love, but she was
following me from castle to castle, from room to room,
I screamed out don’t come any closer your electricity will strike me,
I left her in one of the rooms sitting like a teacher from the strange
Ages sipping lessons and crying, sipping lessons and the class
Is empty except for benches while I am ill fortuned outside,
I climb one stair and descend from another in search of a cave.
Translated by Omnia Amin