The following are translations of poems by the Omani poet Hilal al Hajri (1968-) from his first collection titled: “Night Is Mine”, (Muscat: 2006)
1
“Moghyyiba*” on Jabal Akhdhar**
O you graceful body
Carved like the Alalaan*** tree!
With your eyelashes cloak me
I, stricken by poesy,
Stricken by anything
While I spin a small plot you come to me
And tear down the throne of my madness
And desperate journey.
O reckless cloud,
Who is this heart for
The heart I’ve held in my hand
For twenty years?
O poem that I wish to wolf down
Like a primitive man
Drown me with more kisses
More terror
So I can rise
From the giddiness that girdles me.
O unattainable yet desirable,
Hide me like a wandering bug
In your braids,
Give me a drop of your blood,
So I can swallow my submission moments
And love you!
2
No use
Damn it!
Hypocrisy even in the mirrors!
Some show you as a monster
Others lure you
Into yourself!
3
Angels
All of a sudden,
Like an inspiration flash,
A flood of kids
Swept me far off
Into their small and round eyes
From the fevered venom,
Planted in my heart
By ‘orientalist’ rancor
And clash of cultures.
4
Pleasure
Reading in a café
(Or something similar!)
Is so delicious!
For a time
You drown between the banks of a book
Then you raise your eyes
And catch the eyes of an enchanter
Secretly devouring you,
Or the glance of a snobbish breast
In the throng.
Then you wake up
From a trance you were enslaved in
By the lashes of knowledge!
*Moghyyiba in the Omani dialect refers to a woman who is believed to have died by the power of witchcraft, but then appears alive in a rather shabby condition (the poet).
** A mountain chain in the interior of Oman (the translator).
*** A huge tree which exists in large quantities in Jabal Al Akhdhar (the poet).
