Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2024
The Letter Writer, poem by Al-Bahaa Hussein.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
The Letter Writer
He used to raise the words in his mouth
Just as his mother raised the chicks in the courtyard of the house
That nurturing, whose duration and impact remain unknown
Yet it manifests in the hands over time.
He used to act with the village’s share of words
As if he were its sole heir
So that he finds something suitable for every heart
He knows from the erection of the woman’s nipples
That one of them wants to send a letter
To her expatriate husband
And from the paleness of the face
From the grief
From the longing of the features
For a hand to touch them
From the eye, when it shines and becomes a bed
He knows that the lady needs
To embody the role of a folding sheet
And when the words that fulfill love are not available
He resorts to reminding her of her sorrows.
Perhaps she wanted to send a letter to her brother
Who died in the war, and they did not find his body
So, they sent his things instead of him
The thick socks, the remains of the jar of mish cheese
And a crumpled picture of his beloved
And because the letter writer does not
Find enough tears at the lady’s disposal to hold a funeral
He borrows poignant words from the living balance
She kisses the address and the addressee
And when he finishes, she sticks the letter with her tongue
To reassure herself that she has closed the envelope on loneliness
So, it does not fly away.
Many times, he wrote about himself
While writing letters to widows in which they appealed to luck
He used to say that the village roads
Where donkeys and mules walk naked
Are luckier than them
Nothing covers their desires
He used to write that widows are more
Entitled than the roads with this spontaneity
But he never knew who to address the letters to.
He used to write letters to God on behalf
Of the village
About its enduring wait
Its struggle with bilharzia before its power waned
About the rusty locks that grew weary of their duty
About the humble homes that could never justify their poverty
Sometimes, He would write in the air
Careful to insert dots on every letter
Yet, God did not seem inclined to answer a child
Who used tears as ink or words.
Oh Lord,
The widows are still waiting for me
And the village streets have taken my steps as a mortgage
Until I repay the debt
So, do not embarrass my fingers
And my dry pens that wrote to you
To allow “my father” to visit my mother
Even in her dreams
To ask for an hour each night from his grave
And leave her
With enough money and kisses
To stop her cries.
O Lord, I am the writer of letters
The lines used to flow under my hand
Just like the years that pass without glories
How many lives have been ruined
In mailboxes because of me
Husbands returned to find their wives in the embrace of the grave
Sometimes my letters went to the wrong addresses
And many times, they could not
Pass the borders
I am the writer of letters
I lived stranded, wandering in the distance
Between every pair of hearts
Until I turned into a letter sent long ago
But it never received a reply.
© Al-Bahaa Hussein
Al-Bahaa Hussein (1969) is an Egyptian poet and journalist, born in Sohag, Upper Egypt. He has published 14 books and poetry collections. Moreover, he obtained a doctorate in Arabic literature. He is also a member of the Writers and Journalists Syndicate in Egypt.
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.