Live Encounters Poetry & Writing June 2024.
As if they were trees, poems by Tayssir Haider.
Translated from Arabic to English by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
As if they were trees
Those whom I loved
And nurtured by the fragrance of their company
In the plains and mountains
They departed
Leaving their trunks filled with greenery in my heart
Sometimes I pluck from their fruits poems of longing
Fig trees that I taste with all their overflowing honey
Almonds with the flavors of the earth loaded with delicious Ivy
And olives that smile at me
Becoming tables of longing
The pomegranate while chanting the charm of the breast
And the tree of my heart that embeds itself next to their trunks like love…!
The chaos of longing
This soft universe like the ivy is yours
For the tenderness of your cheeks
For your elegant dress.
Where are you heading
While my heart is a tent in the vicinity of your pastures?!
And I trespass the roads leading to the dew of your surroundings
I watch the clouds
I envy them for embracing your bedroom
You left
And the energy of my feelings at the exits of your home
Is like a traffic sign where colors mixed
And plunged the world into the chaos of nostalgia!
© Tayssir Haidar
Tayssir Haidar (1951) is a Lebanese poet. He studied at the Lebanese University and obtained two degrees in Arabic language and geography. He published his book “Love of the Countryside” in 2014. Furthermore, he communicates with hundreds of writers and poets in the Arab world on facebook pages and literary websites.
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. 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.