Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2024
Love in the dark, poems by Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Love in the dark
Do I love you? My eyes say I love you
And the tone of my voice says it
And my long silence
And all the companions who saw me, they said… I love
And you still do not know
I love you… when I offer my smile
Like a passer, walking by for the first time
And when I greet, then I quickly pass
To enter a room
And when you tell me… recite a poem
I recite it without looking back, fearing the eyes meeting
For when the eyes meet the poem, it opens a door for a captive bird
I fear for it if it becomes free
I fear for it if it lands on your hands
So I keep it away from them
But in the evening, I confess
I walk on the corridors of serenity
And open the doors of my heart
And release my bird
I converse with the city’s radiance
As it dances under the bridges
I say to it… O radiance, feed my heart for I love
I say to it… O companion of ships and travelers, answer
Why does the lover walk alone?
Why do my arms keep hitting the bushes without an arm?
And the light and shadow mesmerize me until
I feel like I am part shadow, and part light
I feel as if the city enters my heart
As if words are spoken, and people walk beside me
So I tell them about my beloved
My beloved came from the countryside
Just as you came once, my beloved came
And the wind threw us on the shore, hungry and naked
So I fed him a piece of my heart
And combed his hair
Made my eyes mirrors
And dressed him in a golden dream, and we said we’d walk
For the best of life is abundant
And he takes a path, and I take a path
But in the evening we meet
So I look speechless at my beloved’s face
My beloved came from the countryside
And I tell them about you until
The moon sleeps on its western side
And the wind inhabits the heart of the tree
And when I return, I tell myself
Tomorrow I will tell her everything.
Me and the City
This is me
And this is my city
At midnight
The open space of the square, and the towering walls
Appear and then vanish behind a hill
A leaf in the wind spun, then landed, then
Got lost in the pathways
A shadow fades
A shadow extends
And a curious, dull lamp eye
I stepped on its beam as I walked by
And my heart’s turmoil with a sad episode
I started it, then fell silent
Who are you.. who are you?
The clueless guard does not grasp my story
Today, I was evicted
From my room
And I became lost without a name
This is who I am
And this is my city.
© 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.
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.