This year, reclusive Egyptian poet Emad Abu Saleh won the Sargon Boulus prize. While he has published a number of collections, and is beloved of both poetry readers and critics, relatively little of his work has made its way into translation:
Editorial Karwán has brought out a translation of Emad Abu Saleh’s acclaimed collection كان نائماً حين قامت الثورة (He was Asleep when the Revolution Came, 2015) in both Spanish (as El Elogio del Error) and Catalan (Elogi de l’error). However, in English, it seems there has been only the publication of two earlier works by the poet in Banipal in 2006, as well as four poems published by ArabLit, in Huda Fakhreddine’s translation.
Salma Harland has generously brought five more of his poems to English; three appear here, and two will be published in the forthcoming DREAMS issue of ArabLit Quarterly.
By Emad Abu Saleh
Translated by Salma Harland
*
Flour Fever
From A Dog Barking to Kill Time (1996)
They were not sieving,
But dancing to the rhythm.
They would come out of living rooms,
Like angels in white,
Covered in flour dust,
Until their husbands beat them
Back
To being ghosts
In black.
حُمَّى الدقيق
من ديوان «كلب ينبح ليقتل الوقت» 1996
لم يكنَّ ينخلن
كنَّ يرقصن على إيقاع المناخل
ثم يخرجن من حجرات المعيشة
ملائكة بيضاء
بغبار الدقيق
إلى أن يلطمهن الأزواج فجأة
فيعُدن مرة ثانية
.أشباحًافي ملابس سوداء
*
The Geeze Orchestra Plays for Them
From A Dog Barking to Kill Time (1996)
They have spent their entire lives
In tiny rooms.
They never remember
To look at the sun
While putting out the laundry to dry on rooftops.
The very few times they would leave the house,
They trip after every step they take
For they have forgotten how to walk
In open spaces.
Their children, crawling around in their tears,
Can only recognise them
Not from their faces
But from their feet.
When they die,
They scold women for wailing
And wash their own dead bodies themselves.
تعزف لهن أوركسترا الإوزات
من ديوان «كلب ينبح ليقتل الوقت» 1996
قضين عمرهن كله
.في الحجرات الضيقة
لم يتذكرن أبدًا
أن ينظرن للشمس
وهن ينشرن الغسيل فوق السطوح.
المرات القليلة التي غادرن فيها المنازل
كن يسقطن بعد كل خطوة
لأنهن نسين المشي
.في مساحات واسعة
أطفالهم الذين يحْبون في دموعهم
يعرفونهن من أرجلهن
.لا وجوههن
حين يمتن
.ينهرن النسوة اللاتي يولولون لأجلهنويُغسَّلنَ جثثهن بأنفسهن
*
Sometimes She Does Not Remember
How to Swallow Water
From An Old Man Pained by Laughter (1997)
Dumped
On the pavement,
Half-dissolved in rain water,
Patting cats
That feast on her knees,
Fishing,
With her worn out shoes,
For whichever smiles
That pick their way stealthily
From doorways.
لا تتذكر أحيانًا
كيف تبلع الماء
من ديوان «عجوز تؤلمه الضحكات» 1997
ملقاة
على الرصيف
نصف مذابة في ماء المطر
تُربت على القطط
التي تتعشى من ركبتيها
،وتصطاد
،بجزمتها الممزقة
الضحكات
.المتسللة من أبواب المنازل
Emad Abu Saleh’s (b. 1967) first poetry collection Matters Already Decided was published in 1995. His poetic career has thus far been unusual, idiosyncratic, and punctuated by periods of self-imposed silence. His self-publish works are only privately circulated, even after he has established himself as one of the prominent prose poets of his generation. For more see “Poets of the nineties: poetry against poetry.”
Salma Harland is an Egyptian-born, UK-based translator and academic researcher. She holds an MA in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Sussex, a PGCert in Translation and Interpreting from the American University in Cairo, and a BA in Translation from October 6 University. She has some published literary translations from and into English and Arabic, including a translation of five selected poems by Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo (published in Romman Magazine, 2020).
