Live Encounters Arab Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Five
November- December 2025
My Sixteenth Year, poem by Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
My Sixteenth Year
My friends,
We may doze off for a while
As the clock in the square ticks on
Then we wake… to find the caravan passing by
And ourselves greatly changed
Having left our sixteenth year behind.
My sixteenth year,
The day I opened my eyes to Woman
That day… my color turned sallow
That day… I spun in a magical whirlwind
My love was a dark balcony I walked beneath
To see her
I couldn’t hear her voice
Only her hands would greet me
It was enough for me that her hands greeted me
Then I’d go on, staying up all night with a poetry collection
‘O my heart, God have mercy on love
It was a palace of illusion… then it fell
Give me drink, and I’ll drink upon its ruins
And quench my eye, for tears have quenched it long’.
I loved those poets
I’d quench my thirst with their tears every evening
I’d sing with them of the impossible
And the colors of withering
And autumn leaves
Racing in the wind’s hand to a fearful abyss
And a black bird in infinity
That went consulting guidance bells
Searching the earth for worms, and for a new god.
I loved those poets
I’d ascend above clouds they wove
Stretch out in incense they released
And see love… as absence, reveries, and sorrow
And the true lover… is one who loves and perishes
And profound love… is love unfulfilled
So they’d say… O for an unfinished melody!
And the nights of my sixteenth year
My dream was to stay up all night
Beside a bottle of wine
Leaving my hair drooping in locks
Releasing my thoughts down every path
Receiving inspiration from my poetry devil
With a tear on my cheek
And on my silent desk, a candle
Drawing shadows on my gloomy face
As it dwindles in the flame
While the cigarette burns my finger
And a vague yearning in my ribs
For seas where pirates play
And how sunset tormented me
Its sullen fertile color
Its silence, the flock of returning birds
The slumbering crops
The bleating scattered from afar
From resting sheep
And mulberry branches walking in the twilight
Bare. No leaves
And coffins of light passing
And here, how many times I sighed
I longed to die
To end in my sixteenth year.
My friends,
We may doze off for a while
As the clock in the square ticks on
Then we wake… to find the caravan passing by
And ourselves greatly changed
Having left the alcoves behind
And we went out, crossing the square in every direction
Where the thrill of warmth courses through bare shoulders
And we ran, embracing children in every street
And cooing to every lovely girl
Like drunkards, taken by some euphoria
And with a victory song
And a melody with radiant tones, we embraced life
And reached our nineteenth year.
My friends,
The clock keeps ticking
So if you are young, swear never to die
And beware of your sixteenth year.
© Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi
Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi (1935) is an Egyptian poet and critic. He has actively contributed to numerous literary conferences in various Arab capitals and is recognized as a leading figure in the modern Arabic poetry renewal movement. His poetry has been translated into several languages, including French, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, and German. He has been honored with the Greek Egyptian Kavafi Prize in 1989, the African Poetry Prize in 1996, and the State Appreciation Prize in Literature from The Egyptian Supreme Council of Culture in 1997.
Dr Salwa Gouda is an accomplished Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic affiliated with the English Language and Literature Department at Ain Shams University. Holding a PhD in English literature and criticism, Dr. Gouda pursued her education at both Ain Shams University and California State University, San Bernardino. She has authored several academic works, including Lectures in English Poetry and Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism, among others. Dr. Gouda also played a significant role in translating The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers, a comprehensive project featuring poets, philosophers, historians, and literary figures, conducted under the auspices of UNESCO. Recently, her poetry translations have been featured in a poetry anthology published by Alien Buddha Press in Arizona, USA. Her work has also appeared in numerous international literary magazines, further solidifying her contributions to the field of literary translation and criticism.