‘A City Beyond History’: New Poetry by Doha Kahlout
A City Beyond History
By Doha Kahlout
Translated by Alaa Alqaisi
A city beyond history.
Advance, O city of splendor, toward eternity—
not in history,
not in breaking news,
not within borders.
Your endlessness is in us,
and we return you to your first course:
your wave gathers up our bewilderment,
the streets swallow our gasp,
the houses are a shelter for vows.
Press your body to the sea—
it comes out cool, unharmed—
and let tears move across your hidden grief.
No staff is in your hand to rouse the rubble,
and all of us, and all of you, take refuge
in your praise-worthy stubbornness.
Advance over a world made of shame,
and let the purity that is yours prevail.
Translators’ note: No staff is in your hand to rouse the rubble is an echo of Moses’ staff, implying the absence of miracles.
مدينةٌ فوق التاريخ
مدينةٌ فوق التاريخ.
“تقدمي يا مدينة الزهو نحو الخلود، لا في التاريخ، ولا في عاجل الخبر، ولا في الحدود.
فينا خلودك الأبدي، ونحنُ نُعيدك سيرتك الأولى: موجك يتلقف حيرتنا، والشوارع تبتلع شهقتنا، والبيوت مأوى للعهود.
ضمي جسدك في البحر يخرج باردًا من غير سوء، واتركي دموعًا تسعى فوق حزنك المخبوء.
لا عصا في يدك تحيي الركام، وكلّنا وكلّك نلوذ بعنادك المحمود،
تقدمي فوق عالمٍ من الخجل، والطُّهر منك يسود.
Doha Kahlout is a poet and teacher from Gaza. Her first collection of poems, Ashbah (“Similarities”), was published in 2018. She was selected for a residency at Reid Hall in Paris as part of the Displaced Artists Initiative, co-sponsored by the Columbia Global Center and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, but has not been able to take up her place since the Israeli invasion of Rafah and the closure of its border crossing in May 2024. Read more of her work in translation by Yasmine Seale at The Yale Review; translated by Katharine Halls, in Vittles magazine; or by Wiam El-Tamami as part of the And Still We Write collection.
Find Doha on Instagram @doha_kahlout.
Alaa Alqaisi is a Palestinian translator, writer, and researcher from Gaza, deeply passionate about literature, language, and the power of storytelling to bridge cultures and bear witness to lived realities.