Live Encounters Arab Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Five
November- December 2025
The Book of Creation, poems by Sameh Mahgoub.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
The Book of Creation
I created the sea
And said to it: Sleep a little
While Life opens her legs to the passersby.
I created the passersby
And said to them: The sea is on a watch shift
And life will not open her legs
before the Sleepers in the Cave awaken.
I created Life
And said to her:
Be sadistic as you see the dreamers
Slain upon your high walls.
I created the walls
And said to them: Show no mercy to the short of stature
The children of easy mistakes.
I created the Mistake
And said: Salvation is not wide enough
For two lords in the storm.
I created water
And soil
And air
And fire.
I created Fear
And Sorrow
And Forgetting
And Emptiness.
I created everything
Everything!!
And I sat upon my throne
Unemployed.
The Final Declaration of Mansur al-Hallaj
There is nothing in the robe
But God.
There is nothing in the robe
But me, O my father.
I will die alone
Among the people,
Cast out
From their mercy,
An outcast
Among my own kin.
And the Sultan
And his court
Will become drunk
On my blood.
I will die
A stranger,
O my father.
And I will be crucified
Beside
My first poem.
And the birds will eat
From my head,
So that you may die
Far away, like me.
There is nothing in the robe
But me,
O my father.
I take form in my instruments,
A passage for the survivors
From the sharpened words
The outcasts
The cursed ones
The people of form
And countenance
The guardians of nothingness
Crowded
With my sublime Self.
How sacred I am!
I taught
The bird the Meaning,
And the trees, flying.
I taught
The stones revolution,
And the roads, exile.
How sacred I am!
If I gestured,
And the sun shone from me
Upon the witnesses.
How sacred I am!
If the invocations cried out
On my lips,
And opposites united
In my essence
And the ephemeral melted
Into the ephemeral.
How sacred I am!
Whoever wished
Saw me.
Who Will I Be!
In a year,
Or a hundred
Or more…
They will know who I will be
Who I am now,
And who is the one I hid in the storm,
And I ran alongside her shadow like a blind man
Teaching intuition to climb the abyss
And teaching the pavement to yearn
For her trembling steps.
And they will ask:
What is poetry?!
If it does not fling the horizon open for the frightened sparrows
If it does not feed the poor
And hold the hand of an old woman crossing her days
In a winter coat.
What is poetry?!
If it does not march in a demonstration
On the shoulders of the drifting stars,
If it does not see God!
Or is seen by God
Without the mountain settling in its place
Or collapsing, struck down
In the fleeting moment.
© Sameh Mahgoub
Sameh Mahgoub is a distinguished Egyptian poet and a graduate of the prestigious Faculty of Dar Al Uloom. An active figure in the international literary scene, he has participated in major cultural festivals across the Arab world, including in Tunisia, Morocco, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria, and Jordan. His expertise is recognized through his roles on the jury committees for prestigious state awards. Mahgoub’s celebrated work has earned him numerous accolades, such as the Ahmed Shawky Shield, the Al-Babtain Award for his poem “On the Rhythm of His Laughter, He Walks,”
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.