Live Encounters Poetry & Writing March 2024.
Behind the involuntary mask of a daffodil, poem by Abdullah Mohammed Al-Samati.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Behind the involuntary mask
of a daffodil
1
For the first time, I live. I illuminate the earth in the rib of air.
I see a silhouette Wearing me
I versify the throat of Nowruz; I call myself slowly and flee into my madness
Here
In the blind pleasure
Over the fence of astonishment of a folk singing bough
My silence chatters me
Here too
The metaphor of the wind, where I blow on a string
I depart to me with the geography of nostalgia.
……
For the first time, I live.
……
2
Everything outside us is bad, if inside us is ugly, such is the world of certainty.
3
Here in my fingers are the stones of a universe that does not want to pounce
Because my pulse is from my aorta
Here, with my first resurrection, I will drown a thousand seas in me
Like an ascension on the root of groaning
Here I extend like a nothingness opposite to the Hyle, where my essence is a maze Of my thoughts
In my humanity, a child would like existence to become his toy that contains
My years.
4
I am behind the involuntary mask of a daffodil, which is arranging its well
with the extent of my eyes.
5
I anxiously personalize the light of my things, and the shadows oppress me
as if I will fall into an ambush.
For the first time, I live.
© Abdullah Mohammed Al-Samati
Abdullah Mohammed Al-Samati is an Egyptian poet, literary critic, and researcher. He published 14 poetry collections and 35 critical books. In addition, He worked in cultural journalism for more than 30 years for several Egyptian and Arab newspapers and magazines. He also participated in several poetry and criticism evenings and literary conferences in Egypt and the Arab world.
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.