Live Encounters Arab Poetry & Writing April 2025
The Orchid Flower, poem by Essam Khalifa.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
The Orchid Flower
Be at ease…
Do not fear me today
They may pass by in a fleeting glance
Like a flash of lightning seen by my eyes
They do not carry the pulse of my heart in their veins
They have not shed tears in my sorrow
They have not danced upon the madness of my melodies
They have not taken root in the depths of my memory or my art.
So be at ease…
I am no longer a bird seeking refuge in flowers
That mimic their shape in every corner
The resemblance to jasmine blossoms stirs my rejection
And imitation has become my problem and my prison
How many flowers have adorned the bosom of spring when it blooms
From afar, hinting that beauty has arrived.
Yet up close…
In their monotony, beauty dies, exiled and defenseless
I scream into their mirrors and ask:
Who will revive the revolution of renewal?
Who will come to carry
In her hands the rarity of the orchid or the charm of the carnation?
I wandered in search of legends of imagination
For women who wear the attire of honesty, not pretense
For a conversation unlike what was said yesterday or the day before
For a spring that is sincere, free, and unshackled,
For flowers that do not repeat me, suffocate me, kill me, and kill.
Then I met you…
When I found the beauty of the orchid weaving
From the threads of dawn a vision
That makes the sunrise more beautiful
Then I realized that my longed-for spring has arrived
To melt the snow away from me.
Orchid flower, embrace me
And rest upon my branch
And wear my security in your fear
And grow between me and myself
And be at ease…
No flower is like you
No plant, no sprout
That grew in the field of imagined irrigation
Or the gardens of wishful thinking.
O girl who has pained my heart and mind
In my question about the intent of the mobile phone toward me
Every time I taught her not to assume
That some assumptions are sins, she followed me
This assumption is love, do not let me
Burn from the fire of my feelings and my assumptions.
O my peace amidst my worries
O my tranquility in a noise that could not contain me
O a conversation that came as a whisper
Like a lute serenading the silence of the night
Like a flute when it hums a melody
That gathers the moons around me
Like a brush that mimics the vision of the painter about me
She traveled from his palms
And chose my color from the palette of colors.
O a feeling molded from me
O an intelligence that did not betray me
My words have faded when describing love
Be my aid in expression and singing
Be my rhyme and meter in creativity
And save me from letters that did not describe me
From seas that drowned me
From harbors that did not sail me
From meanings that were written, yet I do not know
What they will mean in the concepts of love
Flow like a flood in the desert of my embrace
Break down the walls of my fortress
And enter without my permission.
I lived my life like a train
Hating the time of my waiting
Rejecting the feeling of my cowardice
Fleeing from every patience
That might sweeten with wishful thinking,
Crying out, “O my God, help me
On a path toward fire or paradise that did not quench me.”
I cannot bear patience alone, thus has my affair become.
A liar is he who claims that safety lies in deliberation.
Be at ease…
They have not read my poetry before my ink touched it
They have not shone on the night of my solitude like the prayer of my dawn
They have not tasted the bitterness of my fluctuations and the exhaustion of my patience,
They have not accepted my excuse despite the sin.
So, settle
And drink from the water of my feelings and be content
Here I have housed my heart
Here I have entrusted my secret
Here I will live from my cradle to my grave
So be still and reside in the warmth of my chest
Be at ease…
I am no longer a bee that quenches its honey from the nectar of flowers
I am not accustomed to feeding on my rejection, and with me
Thus I have pledged my covenant
Thus has my affair become.
O tranquility of the sea, O river of silver
O girl, whenever I burdened her with a load, she replied
“O beloved of my heart, from my eye and my eye.”
Do not fear or hesitate
In my land, you will not be lost
That is my compass, and that path is my path, so aim for it
And remember my words if you walk it:
That heart of mine, purify it
From the remnants of its inhabitants
Adorn it with your color taken from me
And dance in it and sing.
© Essam Khalifa
Translated from Arabic by Dr Salwa Gouda. She is an accomplished Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic affiliated with the English Language and Literature Department at Ain Shams University. Holding a PhD in English literature and criticism, Dr. Gouda pursued her education at both Ain Shams University and California State University, San Bernardino. She has authored several academic works, including Lectures in English Poetry and Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism, among others. Dr. Gouda also played a significant role in translating The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers, a comprehensive project featuring poets, philosophers, historians, and literary figures, conducted under the auspices of UNESCO. Recently, her poetry translations have been featured in a poetry anthology published by Alien Buddha Press in Arizona, USA. Her work has also appeared in numerous international literary magazines, further solidifying her contributions to the field of literary translation and criticism.
Essam Khalifa (1971) is an Egyptian Canadian poet who obtained his first degree in Medicine in 1994 and his M.A. in Business Administration in 2011.He has published more than five poetry anthologies, two of them have been translated and published in Spanish , in addition to a book in the field of human resources development. He attended and participated in many poetry festivals around the world and his books have been circulated around the Arab area. He won the second position in Prince of Poet competition reward – Emirate – 2015.