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 –
Philosophy
Were it not for loneliness
No poem would be written
No stranger would cry
Were it not for loneliness
No virgin would be deflowered
No teenager would moan,
Were it not for loneliness
We’d never discover
This dreadful pain.
2 –
Iram*
Iram
Is a baby girl whose deity
Dispensed with
Because of its great beauty
And wealth.
Both travelers and lovers
Adored it
But only
Bedouins of the Empty Quarter
Step on it with bare feet.
Iram
So mysterious, so far-off
The exile for the poets
And their afterlife.
Iram
A poem never sung by Motanabbi
Or Maghot**
Never lends itself to rhyme or rhythm.
An open text
For all dreams
The wonder of the first cup
And pleasure of the last one!
Iram
Wilderness of the last agony!
Iram
Salvation
Salvation
Salvation.
3 –
Lord Curzon
This colonial historian
I etest so much
He hates the East
And sings so stupidly
From the buttocks of his
Decayed empire!
4 –
Who’s like me?
Who’s like me
A despised, proud poet?
Who like me
Drinks with such grand visions in his head:
Plump Bedouin damsels
A city teeming with immortal souls
But buried beneath sands
An expanse where all things meld
Even nothingness
The Supreme Ego Freud didn’t fathom?
5 –
The Conceited
Don’t wear make-up now!
In my moment of sobriety
I was
Fighting the air
That tightened your breasts
And exposed them to passers-by.
6 –
Direction
She
And the pianist
Take you to every direction.
He, with his mad frivolity
And rash creativity,
Doesn’t leave you
A sense to sway you.
She contains the place
With a beauty
She shares with no shareek!***
*Name of an ancient city mentioned in the Quran. Some archaeologists believe it is in Zofar, the southern part of Oman (the translator).
**Mohammed Maghot (1934-2006) is a contemporary Arab poet from Syria (the translator).
***Shareek is the Arabic word for partner. It is rich with religious associations, as Muslims believe that God has no shareek. And because the English word, partner, falls far short of conveying the religious dimension, I preferred to use shareek (the translator).
