Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2024
Homes, poem by Chawki Bazih.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Homes
Homes are birds that nest their chicks with longing
Every time they move away from
The inclined iron of their windows
And homes are bridges of nostalgia
That connect the cradle to the grave
The feathers of the first adventure
The clay of reproduction
The secret of symmetry between nature and character
Between the funeral and the midwife
And homes are lines that compose us
With their sea like a poem
One line of verse after another
So that we weigh memories with its scale
Every time the melody breaks
Or the compass gets lost
And homes are roots
That always bring their inhabitants back
Towards the same place they left
For its sun protects them
From the dizziness of the heights
And from paths that scatter them
In the fractures of the place
And homes are time that divides
Its beats equally on its dwellers
So they can swim between two homes:
The home of existence and the home of nothingness
And to silently cross
Between what collapses and what heals
And homes are our longing womb
For residence in the archipelago of drowsiness
Seeking a connection with the sea without water
So we can lament our initial fires
Or mourn a time that will never return to the earth
And homes are our lost paradises
So, care about your homes
Carry them, like the turtle, on your back
Where you are and where you go
For in their shade, you will not lose
The way to your own shore
You will not tire of their black stones
No matter how far you stray from their winding paths
You will not bend over a cradle
Less harmful than their neglected bridges
And you will not find in the frost of your winters
Anything equivalent to leaning on the rock of the family
And the silk of silence
Care then about your homes, turn
Even once, towards them
Then hasten your steps
Towards the home of life that never dies.
© Chawki Bazih
Chawki Bazih (1951) is a contemporary Lebanese poet. He has dozens of books on poetry and prose, as well as critical, literary, cultural and intellectual articles. He won the Okaz Poet Award in 2010 and the Al Owais Cultural Award in 2015. He also received the Jumblatt Medal in 2010, the Palestine Medal in 2017 and the Special Honor Award at the Mahmoud Darwish Award for Culture and Creativity in March 2020.
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.