Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Six November-December 2024.
Arab Poets & Writers
Selections, poem by Habiba Mohamedi.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Selections
(1)
I live travel once
The alienation of times lives with me twice
Once when I descend into my essence
And once when the self divides into halves!
(2)
O estrangement of the soul, to whom do I go?
My hands are tired from digging in the water
And the water is tired from my palm and my imprint
O estrangement of the soul, to whom do I go?
And all that I have is not mine
Some for the cleansing of the soul with sin
And some for my explosion at the moment of revelation!
(3)
I wash the soul
I present it to the depths of the people
When they wet their veins with the water of estrangement
I became a poem presented to
The Nile of the land!
(4)
Say, if the sea of my words runs out
The lineage of my wonder will not run out!
(5)
Why, whenever a stranger asks about a home
They direct him to me?
(6)
Between the dead and papers
I crave patience
A game at the New Year
A kiss from my father so I may grow
And something from you so I do not die!
(7)
I am not firewood
But memories consume me!
(8)
The dead die and the home empties of me!
(9)
The house where our shadows embrace
I saw it yesterday lifting its head
For the spiders to weave their longings!
(10)
Birds peck at this head
As if the world is my nest!
(11)
We are all two-faced
But the soul is not a third!
(12)
Every day I try to wake up early
So that the dream does not become longer than me!
(13)
My toy that I “long for” in childhood was a grave
Is it a sin to die twice?!
© Habiba Mohamadi
Habiba Mohamadi is a well-known Algerian poet, writer, and academic who writes modern poetry and opens her text to experimentation between the flash poem, the painting, the fragment, and the epigram. She has many poetry collections and has a long history of writing for the Egyptian, Algerian, and Arab press. She has several collections of poetry and intellectual works. The most famous of them are: “The Kingdom and Exile,” “Fractures of the Face,” “The Overflow of Exile,” “Time in the Open,” “Anklets,” and other works, and some of her works have been translated into foreign languages such as English, French, and Spanish. And her latest intellectual publications: A book about the relationship between poetry and philosophy in philosophical thought, with “Nietzsche” as an example, entitled The Lust for Wisdom, the Madness of Poetry, issued by the Egyptian General Book Authority. She was honored in Algeria, and in several Arab and foreign countries, including, but not limited to, an honor from the Supreme Council of the Arabic Language in Algeria for her excellence in writing in the Arabic language and her efforts to preserve it. Her last honor was from the General Syndicate of the Egyptian Writers Union in 2023, and she was awarded the Union Shield as the first Arab writer to receive the Egyptian Writers Union Shield.
Salwa Gouda is an Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic at the English Language and Literature Department at Ain-Shams University. She holds a PhD in English literature and criticism. She received her education at Ain-Shams University and California State University in San Bernardino. Furthermore, she has published several academic books, including Lectures in English Poetry and introduction to Modern Literary Criticism, and others. She has also contributed to the translation of “The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers,” which includes poets, philosophers, historians, and men of letters, under the supervision of UNESCO. Also, her translated poetry anthology, entitled Dogs Pass Through My Fingers, was published recently through Alien Buddha Press in Arizona, USA. Additionally, her literary translations have been published in various international magazines.