For my daughter Sara
yes, my child,
I am that faithful mongoose.
Who will return my blood to me?
I am the bewitched gazelle
resting her head on the sky
weeping.
I am your crown of gold,
the little princesses
In your dream-cart.
***
A little house I’ll find you
In this vast kingdom
to fit in your palm.
In this vast kingdom
You’ll give me a thing so grand
it will fill all the sky.
That will be you.
***
when I enter your kingdom unseen
bewitched, a beggar or king,
I am at ease in my heart’s window,
looking up at your balcony,
lighting a lantern
with my stories.
***
If you are a fish
I am the lake-
have you seen me?
You might be a bird-
Then I am your rushing air.
have you heard me?
***
I leave with one basket
and come back with two.
going off with a barrow
I return with two horses.
While walking together
we shall laugh,
a doll keeping us company,
and a big inquisitive bird
whom we shall not answer.
***
You might spot me,
A bird, in a flock of birds.
if you can’t find me
watch that one, flapping ineffectively.
***
Do you hear,
In my poetry, the sickle, scything by night?
That’s the harvest.
.............................
http://www.exiledwriters.co.uk/writers.shtml#Khaki
THAT DEATH
I would see him in a nearby road
I remember
his hurried step,
the mistrust in his eyes
when he turned,
his frown when he is smiling
the position he took by the wall
his eyes
his eyes
meeting mine in the crowd.
At night
when I opened the windows
to let in the summer
his whistling would surprise me
as he came
closer
and closer
In great haste
I would shut all the windows
his whistle dying away.
I am still trembling
when he knocks in the morning
- Who is it?
I open the shutters
- Who is it?
I go down the road
returning home
in a sweat
run for the cover of my bed.
2002
GAME
Let us begin the game
You are me, and I am you
I shall put flowers on your grave
and you will put flowers on mine.
I shall enter the gate of the night
and you will enter the gate of the day
There we shall meet
not knowing each other.
You will say:
"You are me."
I shall say
"I am you."
We shall laugh like children
2002
Translated by the author with his daughter Sara Halub and revised by the British poet David Kuhrt. Republished here from their publication in Banipal No 18.
www.masthead.net.au/