Live Encounters Arab Women Poets & Writers April 2024.
Discord, poems by Aicha Bassry.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Discord
Autumn that inhabits me
Is the autumn that looks like you
The wounds, themselves, divide us
The same pain brings us together
My poem is the wound and the balm
Your poem is the nightmare and the dream
You are the one who dwells in the memory of the wind
I am the one who lives in the remains of a gone sun
So, how does all this discord come together
Every night in the bed of love?
Life can solve its mistakes
The dagger that stabbed me
One day
Was damaged by rust.
Thus,
Life spared me the vice of revenge.
© Aicha Bassry
Aicha Bassry is a Moroccan poet, novelist and storyteller. She published many novels and poetry collections. She won the International Prize for the Novel, Kateb Yassin (Algeria 2016) for the novel (Greta Garbo’s Granddaughters), the Simone Landry Prize for Women’s Poetry (Paris 2017) for her Diwan (The Bathers in Thirst), and the Prize for Best Arabic Novel for the year 2018 (Sharjah Exhibition – United Arab Emirates). Her books have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish. She, also, participated in many Arab and international cultural events (book fairs, festivals and conferences.)
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda. She 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. 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 and their poetry, philosophers, historians, and men of letters, under the supervision of UNESCO. Additionally, her poetry translations have been published in various international magazines.