Two Poems by Ines Al Abbasi (Translated by Ali Znaidi)

Picture of Ines Al Abbasi borrowed off http://aleftoday.info/

Two Poems by Ines Al Abbasi (Translated by Ali Znaidi)

These are the original poems in Arabic. They are taken from the online magazine aleftoday.info. “Taking Shape” appeared on December 14, 2008 and “A Bastard” appeared on December 3, 2008. You can also read them here and here.

قصيدتان لإيناس العباسي ~ المصدر: مجلة ألف الإلكترونية

تشكل

الزمن : دوائر تتداخل
لتشكّل
دائرة واحدة
نقطة ارتكازها
خيانتك
بشعاع الأكاذيب الممتدّ
قطرا من الأخطاء
….هناك في علم الرياضيات
مايسمّى بالـ”جِوار”
منطقة بين – بين
لا نحن فيها …و لا خارجها
أحيانا نلتقي فيها
أو على حدود الدائرة
الذاكرة
بالتالي
ننتمي لكلّ الاحتمالات

في اللقاء:
تدور الدائرة بشدّة
لتعود
مجرّد نقطة
في الفراغ

***

لقيط

لقيط
الطفل الذي…
يعبر الليل وحيدا
الذي نهارا
يتأرجح بين
ذراعيّ شجرة
و يغفو بين أهداب
أمّه الشمس
يلتقط
صوت البحر
المختنق في
حنايا صَدفة
سرقها من طفل آخر
-مثله-
الطفل الذي…
يلعب مع الساحرات
في الرواق الطويل
لبيته الكبير
بيت الآخرين أيضا
أين اللغة عرجاء
تفتقد إلى كلمات كثيرة
الطفل الذي
قبل أن ينام في
حلم طفل آخر
يتساءل
كلّ ليلة
ما معنى كلمة :
لقيط؟

Here you are the translation for both poems!

Taking Shape

Time: Circles intertwine

to form

one circle:

its fulcrum is

your betrayal.

The rays of lies stretch

like a diameter of blunders.

In mathematics

there is something called ‘adjacency’—

a no man’s land zone:

We are not inside it, nor outside of it.

We sometimes meet in it

or at the edge of the circle/the memory.

Thus, we belong to all possibilities.

When meeting

the circle vehemently revolves

to return into

a mere dot

in the void

***

A Bastard

A bastard;

the child who…

crosses the night alone,

who at the daytime

oscillates between

a tree’s arms

& naps between the eyelashes

of his mother/the sun,

gleaning

the voice of the sea

that is stifled betwixt

the ribs of a seashell

that he stole from another child

– like him –

The child who…

plays with the witches

in the long corridor

of his big house

the house of others, too

where language is lame

& lacks many words

The child who

before sleeping in

another child’s dream

wonders

every night

about the meaning of the word ‘bastard.’

Ines Al Abbasi’s Bio:

Ines Al Abbasi is a Tunisian poet and fiction writer. She was born in 1981. She is a journalist by profession. She authored poetry collections, including Secrets of the Wind (2004) and Archive of Blind (2007) and a narrative travel book titled Scheherazade’s Korean Tales based on her residency experiences in Seoul.