Five Poems from Hussein Habasch

Syrian Kurdish poet Hussein Habasch shares five of his poems, trans. from the Arabic by Mony Zinati:

Habasch, born in 1970, writes in Kurdish and Arabic. He has published four collections of poetry and currently lives in Germany. More here.

Umbrella

The tree saw two nearly naked children
In the rain shivering from the cold
It ran
It ran fast toward them
Opened its leaves
Stood above them
Like an umbrella

Forgetfulness

When a spike saw the hungry through her eye
It was so sad and said
I wish I were a wheat field
The forest trees heard it and said
We wish our fruits were wheat
The rain also heard it and said
I wish my rain drops become wheat
Dripping through hungry bellies
The dirt heard it too and said
I wish the whole of me became wheat
Even the stones when they heard it said
We wish our hearts become wheat
Only the human heard it and said
I wish…….
But he forgot to finish his sentence!

Two trees

The tree under which the two lovers sat underneath
Had a bright smiling face
The tree in whose trunk the snake lived
Had always a pale sad face

The Love of Two Trees

Two trees were madly in love
The vindictive woodchopper
Cut their trunks off
He took them home
By chance the two trees met in the fire place
They embraced happily
And burned together

A tree’s dream

In a dream a tree saw itself fly
All birds visited the tree in the morning
They gifted it feathers and wings
And made it fly with them

More poems:

On Habasch’s site

On Jadaliyya