New in Translation: ‘Song of Myself’ by Ghareeb Iskander
Poet Ghareeb Iskander — whose English Poetry and Modern Arabic Verse: Translation and Modernity is forthcoming in February 2021 — shares his “Song of Myself” in Arabic and in an English translation by scientist and playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak:
Song of Myself
By Ghareeb Iskander
Translated from the Arabic by Hassan Abdulrazzak
أغنية نفسي
أريدُ أن أكون مثل ويتمان
شاعراً فقط لا غير
أسْمعُ الناسَ نبوءة الحياة
لذائذَ السماء فقط
لا آلام الجحيم!
I want to be like Whitman
A poet only.
Delivering to people the prophecy of life
The pleasures of heaven only
أريدُ أن أكون مثله تماماً
ارتدي قبعتي التي اشتريتها
من كامدن ماركت بلندن
لا أحب اللحى الطويلة
لكنني كي أصبح مثله
سأطلق لحيتي
وأرتدي ثياباً تليق بهذا الربيع.
I want to be just like him
I wear my hat that I bought
From Camden Market in LondonI don’t like long beards
But just to be like him
I will grow my beard
عندما اخْضرَّ العشبُ أخيراً
فاضت زرقة البحر
كأعماق الماضي
أوجه متعددة للحب
لكن القصيدة واحدة
ضئيلة فكرة قيامتي
كما ترى
وليس لي ميراث سوى الأجراس
أفقدها صباحاً مع آدم
لأجدها مساء مع حواء.
When the grass finally became green
The sea flooded with blueness
Like the depths of the past
There are multiple faces of love
But only a single poem
The idea of my resurrection is insufficient
As you can see
I have no inheritance but bells
I lose them in the morning with Adam
مررتُ اليوم بكامدن
هنا بلندن
حيث أقيمُ مؤقتاً
تذكرتُ اقامتَكَ الأبدية
هناك
بكامدن البعيدة
بنيو جيرسي.
Today, I passed through Camden
In London
Where I live temporarily
I remembered your eternal stay
Over there
In Camden,
New Jersey.
سأتكلمُ مثلكَ عن الفرح
الذي تدوّنُهُ الكلمة
عن آمال قصيدتكَ العظيمة:
“أغنية نفسي“.
أصواتٌ عديدة خرساء
سأحررُها الآن
سأحررُ أيضاً
الحروفُ العاشقة
التي تختنق في فمي.
I will speak of joy like you
Set down in the word
I will speak of your great poem:
“Song of Myself” and its hopes.
There are silent voices inside me.
I will free them now
I will free also
The letters of love words
Suffocated in my mouth.
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Hassan Abdulrazzak is an author of Iraqi origin, born in Prague and living in London. His plays include Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre, 2007), The Prophet (Gate Theatre, 2012), Love, Bombs and Apples (Arcola Theatre, 2016) and And Here I Am (Shubbak, 2017). He is the recipient of the George Devine, Meyer-Whitworth and Pearson theatre awards as well as the Arab British Centre Award for Culture.
Ghareeb Iskander is an Iraqi poet living in London. He published serval books including A Chariot of Illusion (Exiled Writers Ink, London 2009); Gilgamesh’s Snake and Other Poems, a bilingual collection, which won Arkansas University’s Arabic Translation Award for 2015 (Syracuse University Press, New York 2016); English Poetry and Modern Arabic Verse: Translation and Modernity (I. B. Tauris, London 2021). He was the featured writer of Scottish Pen in 2014. Ghareeb received his PhD from SOAS, University of London in comparative literature with an emphasis on literary translation.
Also read:
Gilgamesh’s Snake and Other Poems, tr. Iskander with John Glenday
“A Letter to Adil,” tr. Abdulrazzak
Ghareeb Iskander on Iraqi Poetries and the ‘Third Language’ of Translation
Watch:
Af’a Gilgamesh / Gilgamesh’s Snake (excerpt) by Ghareeb Iskander
Reading T.S. Eliot in Arabic: A Talk with Ghareeb Iskander – ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
October 17, 2020 @ 6:39 am
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