Victims of a MapEdited and Translated
by Abdullah al-Udhari
Al Saqi Books (London)
(1984)
It's a rare delight to find an anthology with purpose, of readable length, and with an offering of never-before-printed work. Victims of a Map is just that. Published in 1984, this bilingual (Arabic / English) anthology presents three undeniably influential Arabic-language poets. At 165 pages (half of which are in Arabic), this is a slim volume, and one that can be opened and read in one sitting. Abdullah al-Udhari offers an introduction to the book as well as a brief introduction to each poet, which does a succinct job of grounding each writer and his work in a historical, social, and artistic context.
Perhaps the least known (at least here in the US) of these poets is Palestinian Samih al-Qasim. Born in Jordon in 1939, al-Qasim has published dozens of poetry volumes and has been imprisoned numerous times for both his writing and political activism. His work represented in this anthology is unabashedly political. He chooses direct discourse over the image and lofty language, and crafts poems that are equal parts outcry and indictment.
ABANDONING
I saw her
I saw her in the square
I saw her bleeding in the square
I saw her staggering in the square
I saw her being killed in the square
I saw her...I saw her...
And when he shouted
Who is her guardian?
I denied knowing her
I left her in the square
I left her bleeding in the square
I left her staggering in the square
I left her dying in the square
I left her...
HOW I BECAME AN ARTICLE
They killed me once
Then wore my face many times
END OF A DISCUSSION WITH A JAILER
From the window of my small cell
I can see trees smiling at me,
Roofs filled with my people,
Windows weeping and praying for me.
From the window of my small cell
I can see your large cell.
During the past decade here in the US, translations of Mahmud (also spelled Mahmoud) Darwish's poetry have been on the upswing. Born a Palestinian in 1942, Darwish has published numerous books and has been translated into several languages. The Olives of Oblivion highly recommend the following Darwish titles, all of which are easy to find in used, reasonably-priced editions on abebooks: Memory of Forgetfulness (California, 1995); The Adam of Two Edens (Syracuse University Press, 2001); Unfortunately, It Was Paradise (California, 2003); Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? (Archipelago, 2006); The Butterfly's Burden (Copper Canyon Press, 2006). Like al-Qasim and Adonis, Darwish writes of a wounded people and a wounded landscape. Darwish is a poet with a broad range and an expansive style. Though his poems often employ beautiful and romantic imagery, he never averts his gaze from the edge of the abyss:
THE EARTH IS CLOSING ON US
The earth is closing on us, pushing us through the last passage,
XXXXand we tear off our limbs to pass through.
The earth is squeezing us. I wish we were its wheat so we could
XXXXdie and live again. I wish the earth was our mother
So she'd be kind to us. I wish we were pictures on the rocks
XXXXfor our dreams to carry
As mirrors. We saw the faces of those to be killed by the last
XXXXof us in the last defense of the soul.
We cried over their children's feast. We saw the faces of those
XXXXwho'll throw our children
Out of the windows of this last space. Our star will hang up its
XXXXmirrors.
Where should we go after the last frontiers? Where should the
XXXXbirds fly after the last sky?
Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air? We
XXXXwill write our names with scarlet steam.
We will cut off the hand of the song to be finished by our flesh.
We will die here, here in the last passage. Here and here our
XXXXblood will plant its olive tree.
IF I WERE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN
If I were to start all over again I'd choose what I had chosen:
XXXXthe roses on the fence.
I'd travel again on the road which may or may not lead to Cordova.
I'd hang my shadow on two rocks for the fugitive birds to build a
XXXXnest on my shadow's branch,
I'd break my shadow to follow the scent of almonds as it flies on
XXXXa dusty cloud,
And feel tired at the foot of the mountain: come and listen to me.
XXXXHave some of my bread,
Drink from my wine and do not leave me on the road of years on
XXXXmy own like a tired willow tree.
I love the country that's never felt the tread of departure's song,
XXXXnor bowed to blood or a woman.
I love the women who conceal in their desire the suicide of horses
XXXXdying on the threshold.
I will return if I have to return to my roses, to my steps,
But I will never go back to Cordova.
Adonis (born in Syria in 1930) is the pen name of Ali Ahmad Said. Adonis is described in the introduction by al-Udhari as having had the same influence over Arabic-language poetry as Pound and Eliot have had over the poetry and poetics of English-speaking countries. Of the three poets featured in Victims of a Map, Adonis's poems are certainly the most varied, complex, and inventive. Adonis has the keen ability to combine the abstract and lyrical with the grounded and direct. The Adonis portion of the book is quite large because al-Udhari includes the poem "The Desert (The Diary of Beirut under Siege, 1982)," which is an expansive lyric poem in 35 sections. There are several excellent Adonis translation titles in the US. Here are just a few worth looking for, all of which are readily available on abebooks: The Pages of Day and Night (Marlboro Press, 2000); If Only the Sea Could Sleep (Green Integer Books, 2002); Mihyar of Damascus (Boa Editions, Ltd., 2008).
A MIRROR FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
A coffin bearing the face of a boy
A book
Written on the belly of a crow
A wild beast hidden in a flower
A rock
Breathing with the lungs of a lunatic:
XXXXXXXXXXThis is it
XXXXXXXXXXThis is the Twentieth Century
WORRIES
They arrived naked
Broke into the house
Dug a hole
Buried the children and left...
THE WOUND
1.
The leaves sleeping under the winds
Are boats for the wound.
They buried past is the glory of the wound.
The trees growing in your eyelashes
Are lakes for the wound.
The wound is in the crosspoint
When the grave reaches
When patience reaches
The tips of our love, our death.
The wound is a sign
The wound is in the crossing.
2.
I give the voice of the wound
To a speech with choked bells.
I light the fire of the wound.
For a stone coming from far away,
For a dried up world, for drought,
For time carried on a stretcher of ice.
When history burns in my clothes
And blue nails grow in my book,
When I shout at daylight
"Who are you, who's thrown you on my books,
On my virgin land?"
I see in my books, in my virgin land
Eyes of dust.
I hear someone saying:
"I am the flourishing wound
Of your small history."
3.
I have called you a cloud,
Wound, turtle-dove of departure.
I have called you a feather and a book.
And here I am starting conversation
With a noble word
In the shifting of islands,
In the archipelago of the noble fall.
And here I am teaching conversation
To the wind and palm trees,
Wound, turtle-dove of departure.
4.
If I had havens in a country of mirrors and dreams,
If I had a ship,
If I had the remains of a city,
Or a city
In a country of children and weeping
I'd have made out all this for the wound
A song like a spear
Piercing trees, stones and heaven,
And soft as water,
Overpowering and amazing like a conquest.
5.
Rain on our deserts,
World charged with a dream and longing.
Rain and shake us, we the palm of the wound,
And snap two branches for us
From the trees that love the silence of the wound,
From the trees that stay awake over the wound
With arched eyelashes and hands.
World charged with a dream and longing.
World falling on my forehead
And drawn like a wound,
Don't come closer, the wound is nearer than you,
Don't tempt me, the wound is more beautiful than you.
The wound is beyond the fate
Your eyes cast
On the lost civilizations.
It's left no sails
Nor islands.
As its title indicates, Victims of a Map is unashamedly politically charged. Perhaps the most admirable aspect of this collection is al-Udhari's decision not to form this book into a polemical or didactic work. Rather, he has selected a small group of poems that expresses a range of pain and beauty centering on the conflicts inherent in the relationship between nationhood, cultural identity, and the individual citizen. Victims of a Map has recently been reprinted, and should be ordered from your local independent bookseller.
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