Positions: Part Three

Positions: Part Three Arabic Poem by: Bushra Al-Bustani Translated into English by: Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_N_Silk) ================ (5) The Position of Grief ----------------------- Was the sky blue in any day? I have never seen it clear! Sine the time of the Mongols to the Amiriya** day And from the Amiriya day to the muddy days of the plot. The two rivers are pouring from your fingertips, and I am thirsty There or here There is no difference Since the globe is a ball for the blind to play with Forgetting that Earth is the inheritance willed to us The night is dark, as the stars have fallen in my blood. Since you departed, Moaning of the words has been obscuring the light from my paper And digging a cave for my pleasure in the trunks of trees Since you departed, The night has turned into a silent old man Falling asleep on his cane And I am withering as a wish did not come true As I court the tears of my waiting. Since you departed, Your voice has become an aching child in my blood, A burning flute And a never drying tear drop in my wound. Since you departed, My coffee cup has been extinguished And two seats have fallen of the terraces of the stars. Since you departed, The water turned yellow And the fingertips of words have been dry. In the last watch of sadness, I hear your footsteps And see shadows walk away The tavern keeper Sidori said: “Pamper the boy who holds your hand!” I replied: “But they kidnapped the boy Taking his hand away from mine... A history of colors was sparkling in his eyes And writing canceling writing Amidst the ordeal whispers were faltering But they may not dig graves for his heart and mine As long as there are veins for water in the sand of my soul And lamps that refuse extinction in the erased script.” ==================== Translated by: Em. Prof. Inaam Al-Hashimi USA *Bushara Al-Bustani is a poet from Iraq ** Al_Amiriyah refers to a shelter used by civilians during the Iraq-Iran war in the Amiriyah neighberhood in Baghdad. It was bombed by the USA Airfirce with two lazer-guided "Smart Bombs" on February 1, 1991 where more than four hundred civilians mostly women and children were killed and a thousand were injured.