Live Encounters Arab Women Poets & Writers June 2025
A Leather Bag, poems by Fatima Harsan.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
A Leather Bag
I carry with me a worn-out leather bag,
always clutching it by its neck.
I don’t keep a perfume bottle
or lipstick inside,
unlike other women.
My bag holds a bundle of keys,
blank papers and a pen,
painkillers,
and a sublingual spray to correct my heartbeat.
A necklace indicating my use of strong blood thinners—
in case of a sudden fall—
to save me from internal bleeding.
I grip the keys tightly:
The car key—”my strong legs, never panting.”
The work key—anchors my existence, fuels my hurried steps.
A key for family—I cling to it for mercy.
A key for friends—I hold it tight so none slip away.
A key I guarded fiercely,
clutched hard, hoping for the brightest future—
I lost it in the blink of an eye.
Since then, my heart has bled,
and I curled into myself.
Years passed, and I folded the bleeding.
I was damaged in many places,
set the bag aside,
found myself,
tried various relaxants,
trained in yoga,
steam baths,
enjoying nature.
But the veins in my hands still bulge
like the threads of that bag,
my skin is stained,
and my spasm remains the same,
right at the neck.
To Be a Painting
Words often trouble me,
silence preoccupies me—
so much that I’ve started learning sign language.
Inside me, a desire:
to hold a brush and colors,
to cut through heavy speech,
to be read in images.
I trace dark blue hues
on my shoulders and neck,
slick green algae
spreading across my body,
two dark clouds
on my face,
above them, eyebrows knotted by bright lightning,
and a mouth with a tied tongue.
Wings as wide as my hands,
and a lone bird curled into itself,
refusing to leave my heart.
© Fatima Harsan
Dr Salwa Gouda 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.
Fatima Harsan, born in Qamishli, northern Syria, is of Kurdish origin. She studied Arabic at the University of Aleppo and taught Arabic in Qamishli and Raqqa for 15 years before seeking refuge in Sweden in 2001. There, she obtained a teaching qualification and worked as a mother tongue teacher and assistant for Arab students in Örebro. In 2016, she founded the Kurdish Culture and Language Center, organizing multilingual poetry evenings featuring Arab, Swedish, and Kurdish poets. A writer of free verse and flash poetry, her works have been translated into Swedish, Italian, French, and Kurdish. She has participated in poetry events across Sweden and Germany and published three collections: “The Earrings of the Air Still Ring” (2018), “The Expansion of Love in My Pupils” (2025), and “Fatima’s Palm and What It Writes” (2025), the latter being a selection of her works translated into Swedish. Her poetry was also featured in an anthology of Kurdish women poets translated into French and English.