Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2024
Come, let’s buy a graveyard, poem by Mahmoud Khairallah.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Come, let’s buy a graveyard
Come, let’s buy a wide graveyard
To bury our defeats in
The revolutions we left hanging
On the walls with the dead
Which nostalgia has dried up for the fruits
The kisses we longed for
But never tasted
The forests we dreamed of
But never visited.
Come, let’s buy a graveyard
To bury the precious houses
That we never rented
The fast trains we never boarded
The ships on which we never crossed any ocean
And the luxurious rooms we will never inhabit
And the balconies
Especially those we’ve never seen
The incredibly spacious balconies
Because of its long stay in front of the sea
Let’s buy a graveyard
For the children we never had
And we will never reach out to save them
For the smiles that left marks on our faces
And have not returned to us with warmth and love
Even to this day
For the planes that have always flown across our skies
– Perhaps their roar even stirred us from sleep –
The planes we have never been able
– Not once –
To cross with it
To distant and happy countries.
Let’s buy a very large graveyard
That might hold all we’ve lost along the way
A graveyard that doesn’t stretch out to the edges of cities
Like a perpetual wave of goodbye
Let’s buy
A resting place for our immense sorrows
That can hold all the precious opportunities
That slipped through our fingers
And that we will never be able to reclaim
A resting place for sorrows
That fits all the professions we never pursued
And the unions where we had
No history of struggle.
© Mahmoud Khairallah
Mahmoud Khairallah (1971) is an Egyptian poet and journalist. He works as deputy editor-in-chief of the Egyptian Radio and Television Weekly magazine. He has also published six poetry collections, and one of them was translated into French.
Dr. 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.