O Reckless Cloud

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).