Poetry from Michrafy Abdelwadoud: ‘Cat Love’

We are a little more than 20% of the way toward our goal with our summer “Buy a Back Issue” campaign. This poem, by Moroccan poet Michrafy Abdelwadoud, appeared in CATS issue of the magazine; you can support the campaign by buying a copy of this or other back issues or backlist books, available now through ArabLit.org/Shop. Image courtesy Julia Choucair Vizoso.

Cat Love

By Michrafy Abdelwadoud
Translated by Mariam Antar and Zahra Hankir

there is a cat on fire
captive
in the generosity
of time spilling
over stairs
hurrying in her hurrying steps
following the spinning wheel
of scurrying footsteps
leaving the cat
standing guard
at the long, open crevice
with its meowing
scrambling up
the floors of terror
hanging
in the gallows of emptiness
our path
warning bells
that jammed
the doors in
on the erotic tomcat
captive
at the top of
the stairs of
fire.

there is a lover
she is captive
in the generosity
of eternity spilling
over stairs of pleasure
hurrying in her hurrying steps
following the spinning wheel
of her scurrying lover’s footsteps
leaving her, the lover
at the top
a cat standing guard
at the gap
its whiteness
embroidered
with the swish of a charred star
with its abundant meowing
in the cracks of agony
sobs gushing
through the cavities of walls
from brick to brick
pleading
with her captive lover
at the bottom of
the stairs of
lethargy

there is an erotic tomcat
captive
in the generosity
of time
spilling over stairs
hurrying in her hurrying steps
after the spinning wheel
of scurrying footsteps
leaving the tomcat
standing guard
at the long, open crevice
with its meowing tumbling
down in the terror
of clusters of floors
the gallows
hanging in the emptiness
our path
warning bells
that jammed
the doors in
on a cat in love
captive
at the bottom of
the stairs of
fire 

there is a lover
captive
in the generosity
of eternity spilling
over stairs of pleasure
hurrying in her hurrying steps
after the spinning wheel
of the lover’s scurrying footsteps
leaving her lover
at the bottom
a tomcat
standing guard
at the crevice
its whiteness
embroidered
with the swish of a charred star
with abundant meowing
]in the cracks of agony
sighs travelling
into the cavities of walls
from brick to brick
pleading
with a lover that is captive
at the top of
the stairs of
lethargy

there is only a towering hand
an open hand
a mirror
hanging
from cracks in the clouds
above the dark of night
for the creatures
the jungles
casts lovers
into luminous cats
opening up vestibules
for the boat
of flayed meowing
into the bushes
of the delta of dense pleasure
while the cats cast themselves
lovers
gouging their eyes out
obsolete
a beam of light
tearing the folds
of the erotic thicket
misleading the meowing boat
into the bushes
on the night of
the hand
the mirror
stretched out
its whiteness carved
in the middle
by a star
reaching it charred
waiting
to fold
back in to the cracks in
the clouds

Arabic original also available as part of the CATS issue.

Michrafy Abdelwadoud is a Moroccan poet. “Cat Love” was first published in November 2017.

Zahra Hankir is a London-based journalist who mostly writes about the culture of the Middle East. She is the editor of Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, a best-selling book of essays published by Penguin books in 2019. She is also Mariam Antar’s proud daughter.

Mariam Antar is a Lebanon-based teacher, teacher trainer, and translator. She teaches English as a second language to college students in South Lebanon and has been an educator for over 25 years. She is also an English language instructor and trainer with the British Council.