WHITE SLEEP
—Sadiq al-Saygh
White sleep
Led me to a white dream
To something mysterious, white
I thought I touched gossamer
Or a bone
A coffin, or a white cloud
When I woke up
I found my hand
Had touched your face,
Oh death.
Who appears now
Distant
Nebulous
And cannot be recalled.
(Translated from the Arabic by Saadi A Simawe, Salaam Yousif,
Emily Howard and Ralph Savarese)
___________________
POETRY
—S'adi Yusuf
Who broke these mirrors
and tossed them
shard
by shard
among the branches?
And now...
shall we ask L'Akhdar to come and see?
Colours are all muddled up
and the image is entangled
with the thing,
and the eyes burn.
L'Akhdar must gather these mirrors
on his palm
and match the pieces together
anyway he likes
and preserve
the memory of the branch.
(Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa)
_________________
A POET'S FATE
—Awad Nasir
My country does not belong to me
nor I to it.
For five millennia my country has been no more than imminent exile.
It is my destiny to steal away like a thief
and enter like a thief
I am the one who steals fire from the creator.
But it's my destiny,
that of an ear of wheat,
which when it grows tall
is threatened by the one who wields a sickle.
(Translated from the Arabic by Saadi A Simawe with Daniel Weissbort and Ralph Savarese)
Today's poetry is from Iraqi Poetry Today, Ed. by Saadi Simawe. Kings College London, 2003.
_________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15—sooner than you think!
Coming in February: The Snake is still in winter hibernation for January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series. Come help us launch all of this on Weds., Feb. 13 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.