Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2025
Pillow Letters, poems by Huda Al-Mubarak.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Pillow Letters
I try to laugh without you,
I do not know my laughter,
I perish from drought when I don’t share the rain with you.
The silent letters between us,
The interval between memory and longing,
Letters that don’t know when to speak and when to be silent?!
The letters you chose to be your companion!
Past defeats were nothing but exposure, and delicious naiveties!
Language was never fair!
Sometimes I flee from you, only to fall between dust and water,
The desert welcomes
Lavender blooms from your kisses,
Yet they are merely your beginnings,
You plant your fingers in the wall,
Until your solitude comes.
You find a cheek to kiss!
You gift me to the light.
You place your heart on the pillow and leave!
I find my way from the matching lines of our palms!
And much… much laughter.
Life Differently
I show my face to the day
It returns to me weary
Exhaustion slips beneath my haunted skin.
What use is yearning if I find no path to joy?!
What use is a lifetime… if its numbers consume me?
Life is nothing but… placing one foot before the other,
I race the daylight to it
I tread the first step.
The girl named
Whose fingers are interlaced with the clay of first births,
And the agonies of ancestors.
When the pages of their lives were palm trees and beauty.
And the sweat that built the house!
The sound resting between the floor’s cracks
Guides me to what I shall become!
I practice life differently
I pull the abaya from behind the door.
I knock on poetry’s door, before understanding,
Before the taste of dates vanishes from my tongue,
Before the scent of sandalwood changes in my blood,
I practice life differently
From ease to fatigue,
And from fatigue to toil.
I show my face to the sun
It casts upon me tales of passersby,
Whispers of shops
A plank… a plank
Wishes propped against the wall!
They slip from between my clenched teeth,
The coveted comfort,
Too simple for me to ponder!
Warmth
A home
And a poem that doesn’t quarrel with my cracked heart!
A Rustic Tune
I used to think
That life was toying with my heartbeats,
And the errors of my conduct.
I used to think.
That I was merely a frivolous number
Between births and deaths!
And that poetry would shroud me because it grew weary of the Arabic
The questions
The rustic and modern tunes!
I have no concern with all this
I am a fortune whose birthday coincided with what’s called a star-crossed fate
And the union of secret whispers!
My homeland’s choice of me… The crown upon the chessboard of earth!
Had I resembled my peers
I would be the mirage,
That the desert drinks without planting any roots from me
Or the wave that comes and goes without a shore!
Had I resembled my peers
I would have died alone!
And no life would scream hungry before eternal stillness!
My face wouldn’t plant itself upon the wall
Nor would my body become heritage flooring without peer!
© Huda Al-Mubarak
Huda Al-Mubarak is a poet from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She has published two poetry collections: Intentional Blurriness in Mobile Camera and Slipping. Her texts have been published in various local and Arab magazines and periodicals. Additionally, several of her texts have been translated into multiple languages and featured in international journals, anthologies, and poetry festivals. Her two previous collections are currently undergoing translation and are forthcoming publications.
Translated by Dr. Salwa Gouda, who 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.