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.

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).