➣Original in Arabic, translated by Alice S. Youssef
I have loved you since I first stepped into the street’s womb
to learn how worship with a ball and a cough,
that was a return to they year 1998,
which was a year bereft of bread,
I would then count the mothers with wilted braids
Let me tell you of cosmetics,
how women are recycled or just take me back to 1996,
Back when I would watch twigs become
a throne for two birds,
I would watch a fly I had killed,
For the ants to gather around
dividing it up by an alpahbet of power
until my mother would slap me
for wasting so much time playing with insects
my mother, still arranges my school notebooks
just as she has done since 1998,
while I keep failing at life,
ever since I learned that
Life is nothing but a distance travelled toward erasure!!
I love you by my grandmother's commandments,
as she divides her prayer on the heads of passersby—
Do not stain yourself with screaming, then, for our imprisoned neighbor, as he suffers as we hear tales that circulate through al-Qata'a,
try not to remember the year 2005,
when the bridge stumbled with God's own clients, lay not your hand upon 2014.
All you need to be doing is grow green in the room,
for life is but a long day,
or a stretch of time birthed from nothing,
none of these years
will bring us to understand
the danger of the horses
that have been running for centuries
in our cloned selves.
ARABIC
أحبك
أحبُّ ِك
ُمذْ خرج ُت إلى رحِم الشارع
ِل
ألتعب َد بالكرةِ والسعا
إلى العام
عائدا 1998 ً
ِز
الذي مَّر حافياً من الخب
ُحصي األمها ِت اللواتي
أ
يبس ْت ضفائ ُره َّن
ِك عن مساحيق التجميل
ألحدثَ
وعمليا ِت تدوير المرأة
أو إلى العام 1996
حي ُث كن ُت أراق ُب األعوا َد
لطيرين
وهي تُصب ُح عرشاً
َف عليها النم ُل
قتلتُها ليتكات
وذبابةً
ويوزعُها حس َب أبجدي ِة القوةِ
حتى صفعتني أمي
لفر ِط اللهِو مع الحشرا ِت
أمي التي ما زال ْت
ُب دفاتري المدرسيةَ
ترتّ
كما تفع ُل منذُ 1998 العام
بينما أرس ُب بالحياة
ُمذْ عرف ُت
إلى المحو
إنَّها مسافة !! ٌ
أحبُّ ِك
لوصايا الج ّدةِ
وفقاً
َءها
وهي تُق ِّس ُم دعا
على رؤو ِس المارةِ
ِ
لذا ال تتلطخي بالصراخ
ِر
ِرنا األسي
ألج ِل جا
ُب
وهو يتعذَّ
ّطاَع(
كما في الحكايات المنتشرةِ في )القَ
20054
ال تحاولي تذكَر العام
َر الجس ُر بزبائن الر ِّب
َّ
عندما تعث
وال تضعي ي َد ِك فو َق 20145
ك ُّل ما علي ِك
هو االخضرا ُر في الغرف ِة
فالحياةُ يو ٌم طوي ٌل
أو وق ٌت ُمستق َط ٌع من العدِم
وك ُّل هذه السنوا ِت
نا نعي خطورةَ الجياِد
ل ْن تجعلَ
قرو ٍن
التي ترك ُض ُمنذُ
داخ َل ذواتنِا المستنسخ ِة!
