Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Poems translated to English by Taghrid Bou Merhi/Lebanon
Short bio: Mona Dogan Jamal El-Din
She is a Lebanese poet, novelist and translator. She has published ten books of poetry and novels in Arabic and French. She translated a collection of poetry entitled “By Hirat al-Sayad” by the poet Naser Ramadan Abdel Hamid. Radio Monte Carlo conducted five interviews with her following the publication of her novels and collections of poetry in Arabic. She participated three times in the “Poets’ Spring” in France, in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
WHERE WILL YOU GO
Where will you go
I will be the sparkle
Of uplifting moments
Anchored on the path
Of the daring without weariness
I will be borrowed from moments of ecstasy
Engraved on the peaks
Of the ambitious geniuses
Of the robust colossi.
Where will you go
I’ll be the last flames
Of medieval candles
I will be the shadow
Of thoughts dimmed by the ashes
Of a century devastated by merciless lust
Where will you go
I will be the fine fiber
Of an unfinished canvas
I will be the last stanza
Of an inaudible song
I will be the glow
Of forgotten lyrical verses on the fields
Of the last unknown fighters
Where you go I’ll be the seed rooted deep in your soul
The torch shining the secrets of your passions
The flash of your emotions engulfed
In a precious case
SHE SIP
It is a sip
Of light
That he drinks from the lips
Of the morning
Savoring its flavor
Taking pleasure in witnessing its taste
So that its pure shimmer leaves its dewy look.
It sends warmth to the souls
Mates with the refreshing wind
And seeps from the cracks of time
He scatters pearls on the pillow
Of loved ones
Dances the intoxication of dreams
And takes away the slumber from the silent eyelids
It is a sip of love
That flows through frozen veins
Revives passion in hearts
That have become empty
Weaves passion with its unbroken strands, Performs miracles at the dawn
Tickles verses of longing
Flirts with poets’ rhymes
And dangles on the strings of a harp
That touches the promising tunes of the morning.
GRAY HAIR WOKE ME UP
Gray hair woke me up from my slumber Invaded my dreams and slept
Surreptitiously serialized without permission
Announcing the end
Of the hardship of the Knight of Knights
A cascade of wrinkles ran from head to toe
He narrated the fingertips that wrote epics on deliberate paths
With the scent of elderberry
Admonish the time and treachery days
The hands of time turn
And I am in the orbit of oblivion
The soul is stubborn and calling
Perhaps a miracle will bring back the breath of youth
Hope runs like the winds of the years Fighting the king of death
Hoping to ignite love again
A smile of contentment spreads on his shaved lips at sunset
Before the sword is sheathed in the cloud of fate
