It’s World Poetry Day, which is also Nizar Qabbani’s birthday:
To mark the day, we have a list of 21 poems by Arab women, translated to English, starting with the sixth century and ending with work published in 2020.
Follow the links for each complete poem.
1) From an untitled poem by Dakhtanus bint Laqit (late sixth century), tr. Yasmine Seale
He came early with the news:
the best of Khindif, full-grown
and young combined, is dead.
2) From the poetry of Al Khansa (675- 645) in Loss Sings, tr. James Montgomery
Then Time came,
and harvested its malice.
Time never fails.
3) From ‘Ulayya bint al-Mahdi’s (777-825 CE) epigram, tr. Yasmine Seale
To love two people is to have it
coming: body nailed to beams,
dismemberment.
But loving one is like observing
religion.
4) From a poem by Inan, Daughter of Abdallah, (d. 840-841), in Consorts of the Caliphs, tr. Shawkat Toorawa and the Library of Arabic Literature editors
My soul is given over to sighing,
If only it would depart with those sighs!
If my fate were in my hands
I would race to my demise!
No good remains now that you’re gone:
an outstretched life, I fear, before me lies!
5) From “On Being Proposed to by a Male Poet,” Āʾisha bint Aḥmad al-Qurṭubiyya, tr. Yasmine Seale
I am a lioness: never will I let
my being be the break
on another’s journey.
6) From “The Unnamable Remains,” Qasmuna Bint Ismail (unknown, probably twelfth century), tr. Yasmine Seale
So the sun, to which for all its light
The moon is obliged, is still by it
Obliterated.
7) From “Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity,” Fadwa Touqan (1917-2003), tr. Chris Millis and by Tania Tamari Nasir
Time’s out and I’m home alone with the shadow I cast
Gone is the law of the universe, scattered by frivolous fate
Nothing to hold down my things
Nothing to weigh them to the floor
My possessions have flown, they belong to others
My chair, my cupboard, the revolving stool
8) From “To A Girl Sleeping in the Street,” Nazik al-Malaika (1923-2007), tr. Emily Drumsta
In Karrada at night, wind and rain before dawn,
when the dark is a roof or a drape never drawn,
when the night’s at its peak and the dark’s full of rain,
and the wet silence roils like a fierce hurricane,
the lament of the wind fills the deserted street,
the arcades groan in pain, and the lamps softly weep.
A guard frowns as he passes with trembling steps,
lightning shows his thin frame, but shadows intercept.
Also: You can find more poetry by al-Malaika in the summer 2019 issue of ArabLit Quarterly or in the forthcoming bilingual collection, Revolt Against the Sun, translated by Drumsta.
9) From “Cure Your Slavery with Patience,” Saniyah Saleh (1939-1995), tr. Marilyn Hacker
Cure your slavery with patience
and prayers
or so I was told
Cure your oppression and memory with sleep
as for me
I sat under the high, thorny trees
until they flowered
10) From “Numerical Conjecture,” Fowziyah Abu-Khalid, tr. Ghassan Nasr with Joseph Heithaus
Six
Seven
Nine
These are not numerical symbols
They are not dates of defeats or chronicles of victories
and not
a language for measuring the calendar’s arithmetic
or for marking an early punishment or a delayed reward
My memory is betrayed
by monotonous math classes
with their yawning lessons
and me leaving through the bolted window
without the teacher sensing anything
except the unruly winds
the source of which she fears
11) From “The World’s Heart,” Nujoom al-Ghanem, tr. Khaled al-Masri
We only recognised that sea laden
with our mothers’ fear after it raised
its head high and ate the feet of our homelands…
12) From an untitled poem of Saadia Mufarreh’s, tr. Yasmine Seale
You’re not there
but details linger. Who knows how
they trickle in and scurry out,
how they hum like a knot
of sandgrouse caught
in the snare of distance,
laying waste
to silence, that stranger
not to be trusted,
getting the better of love,
that looted thing.
13) From “Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist,” Iman Mersal, tr. Robyn Creswell
“The nation is on fire,” he said, instead of good evening, and
I started coughing from the smoke that suddenly engulfed me.
14) From “Dragonflies,” Asmaa Azaizeh, tr. Yasmine Seale
Millions of years ago, there were no winged creatures.
We all crawled around on our bellies and paws
to arrive.
15) From “The Book of Games,” Rana al-Tonsi, tr. Robin Moger
In every city is a wall that opens,
a feeble light,
two lovers
who chose to tread the wrong path.
16) From “Anatomy of the Rose“ Soukaina Babiballah, tr. Kareem James Abu-Zeid
When the rose perceived the distance
between itself and the earth,
it brought forth its thorns.
17) From “The Room of Darkness,” Mona Kareem, tr. Robin Moger
I am from darkness, my
homeland is an aging butterfly
my prayers are the desert.
18) From “Pleasant thoughts for getting rid of rage,” Malaka Badr, tr. Robin Moger
I have rage enough to burn the city
and murder its inhabitants
individually, each a different way,
with blithe delight unspoiled by guilt.
19) From “Keys,” Fatima Qandil, tr. Josh Beirich
The keys that do not open doors
Are the same keys that lock them
And the keys wrapped in chains
Have nothing but the spectacle of jingling
20) From “Abstraction,” Aya Nabih, tr. Maged Zaher
The petrified clocks
Are harsh like a wall
And like my writings:
Useless
21) “Normal Life,” by Rasha Omran, tr. Phoebe Bay Carter
Because I, too, know that no one dies of love,
I live my life like a normal woman.
I wake up in the morning, drink my coffee, do all the things any single woman like me would do.
Then, before going to sleep, I sweep up the death that’s piled up on the floorboards
Absolutely beautiful selection — thank you for this!