Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2025
Trust, poems by Rawda Al-Haj.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Trust
That when people fail you
I will not forsake you!
And when old friends depart
I will remain
To become a home
A field, and shade.
And when you lose your way in darkness
I will shine from somewhere
Blazing like Truth itself
Clear
Manifest.
And if they say what you dislike about you
Pay no heed
I know most
Who you are
I will sing
And proclaim to the universe
“No!”
And if the heart is wounded
We shall mend it
With poems
Wounds sewn with poems
Are the sweetest!
And if, O my soul,
We stray awhile,
We shall share the salt and the wound,
Justly.
I was harsh
When I did not say
One day,
“I love you!”
So, forgive me
I was a burden upon you
And weight.
Where were you fleeing
When I took refuge in my repels
Bolted my door
And began my long, tedious blame.
Trust
That I understand
What others do not.
So don’t explain to me
How often explanation spoils
meaning and word!
Trust
That I will love you
In every state of your clay:
Should it turn to light
Or become fire
Or return to clay
Dying and fading away.
So, forgive me
I was late
O my soul, so very late
If only
I had said it sooner!
And I Forgave
Not because your sin
deserved forgiveness!
And I Pardoned
Not because what you committed was trivial
Or because my fracture
Could simply be mended!
And I Forgot
No, I forced myself to forget
All that happened in that tale:
Thorny
Bitter
Hard
Dark
Do you remember?
And I Endured
So much that I
No longer know
How not to endure!
I forgive
Because I deserve
The vastness of absolution
Purity befits me
How could it
Not befit me?
By forgiving, I perhaps freed your soul
But it is mine
That is liberated!
I shrouded your heart, my friend
In pardon— yet it was my heart
Wrapped in its grace!
I granted you beautiful amnesty,
Transcending
Only to find it
In everything that arises:
In my earliest sorrows
Even in my wound
That still drips!
I deserve
The beauty of this forgiveness.
I resemble it.
So, leave silently
No excuse pleads
No words express.
Wounded is my soul
My heart bleeds
Aching
Shattered
I gather the fragments you left me
They scatter!
But something in my soul
Whenever the path darkens
Lights my way
Illuminates me
Runs ahead
Buys me a smile
Companions my solitude
And with its breeze
I am perfumed!
O Girl!
O Girl!
How did you cross this wilderness alone?
Who guided you!?
How did you prevail
Your hands empty
The desert a desolate night
And two exiles nesting
At your horizon?
With betrayal
And gray companions,
And roads riddled with snares.
O Girl!
How did you pass
Through what they laid when they conspired?
How did you cross
The valleys of ruin?
As if the world were an angry tongue:
“Beware…
Beware…”
And the universe mere echo
Repeating after it
As if it spoke of anyone but you!
Yet you walk on,
Their chains never broke your stride
Their borders never held you captive
Their denial never reached you
You walk on
Certain of the meaning
Toward your lote-tree of destiny.
O Girl
You are no prophetess
To plant forgiveness in their wastelands
A cloud that pours rain, not an angel.
O Girl
Where did you buy such patience?
How did you drink it
Bitter again and again
And endure the savagery of roads
That grew accustomed to your steps.
Here you are in the mirror
Smiling back at me
How have you not changed??
Your resolve still overflows
Your face still radiant
Your heart is still clear
Unclouded
Wherever I see you!
O Girl,
How did you do it?
Bless your hands!
© Rawda Al-Haj
Rawda Al-Haj is a pioneering Sudanese poet, media expert, and cultural leader, notably Sudan’s first female Minister of Culture and Tourism. She holds advanced degrees including master’s in media and Criticism & Literature. Her significant roles include Head of the Anasi Forum, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Al-Samraa Magazine, and Director General of the Sudanese Foundation for Cultural Development. An internationally recognized, award-winning poet, her collections (e.g., Live for the Poem) have seen multiple reprints and translations. She is the first Sudanese poetess in a Palestinian curriculum and has won prestigious prizes like the Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Award. She currently serves as an expert at ICESCO.
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.