A poem by: Adil Al-Gassas Translated by: Ibrahim Jaffar
Something of an ache
Something of an ache in the soul
Biting into me
Biting into me this secret wailing.
What are those things running- constantly-
Ahead of the heart?
Are they the shimmering hues of return?!
How much I am smeared with distance!
To Absence, the accent of nails
Oh, you, who are ` the I love you`,
Nothing- as the perfume of presence-
Wipes love clean.
The image of your last kiss, at the Airport,
Is still transfiguring on my lips
Did I feel- oh, you, the respiration of river-mud-
I reposed that kiss
Into the intentions of grass?!
Damn!
Was I not capable of doing anything else?
Except perpetuating departure
Why wishes are so persistent in miss happening?
Is there anyone, oh you River Nile,
Who may tell you about me?!
Slovenly I have been created
For I was shaped without wings
The most discernable feature in me- now:
A respiring eye.
Oh, Lake Tana,
How much you are in the nearness
Of the body’s grasp!
Al-Mogran* must- therefore-setitselfready:
My chest is forward-posing
And, from my arms, a fluttering scenting
How much I am suffused with returning!
Footnotes:
* Al-Mogran is the threshold-the meeting point of The White Nile and The Blue Nile. As you would know, Khartoum- the capital of The Sudan- is `sitting` within the realm of that threshold.
* The poem is extracted from the manuscript of a book which is, provisionally entitled as: A Book of Modern Sudanese Poetry (Translated, from Arabic, by Ibrahim Jaffar- a Sudanese-British poet and creative writer).
Adil Al-Gassas