How Delicious
By Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein
Translated by Ghada Alatrash
The dead who died
in wars and epidemics
in prisons and on the roads
the dead who died
with daggers, bullets, and dynamite
with an ax and a noose
the beautiful dead
with decayed teeth
and bulging faces
they remembered as they lay in their graves
the moonlight and the green pastures
they remembered that they did not live as they should
that they did not notice sounds and colors
they remembered
how many kisses they were deprived of
how much beauty they wished they had not seen
how many flowers they did not plant
how many kind words they did not express
the dead realized
perhaps for the last time
how delicious life is for the living.
*
كم هي لذيذة
رياض الصالح الحسين
الموتى الذين ماتوا
في الحروب و الأوبئة
في السجون و الطرقات
الموتى الذين ماتوا
بالخنجر الرصاص و الديناميت
بالفأس و حبل المشنقة
الموتى الجميلون
ذوو الأسنان البالية
و الوجوه الناتئة
تذكروا و هم في قبورهم
ضوءَ القمر و خضرة المراعي
تذكروا أنهم لم يعيشوا كما ينبغي
لم ينتبهوا إلى الأصوات و الألوان
تذكروا:
كم قبلة أضاعوا
كم ضوءًا أغمضوا عيونهم كيلا يروه
كم زهرة لم يزرعوا
كم كلمة طيبة لم يقولوها
الموتى عرفوا
ربما للمرة الأخيرة
كم هي لذيذة حياة الأحياء
Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, despite dying at the age of just 28, published four collections that deeply marked Syrian poetry.
Ghada Alatrash, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Critical and Creative Studies at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, Canada. She holds her PhD in Educational Research: Languages and Diversity from the Werklund School of Education, the University of Calgary, and a Master’s Degree is in English Literature from the University of Oklahoma. Her current research speaks to Syrian art and creative expression as resistance to oppression and dictatorship.
