The following are translations of poems by the Omani poet Hilal al Hajri (1968-) from his collection titled: “Like a Mountain Bird Watching the Collapse of the World”, (Beirut 2013):
A Good Citizen
That desolate man
In the remotest corner of the tavern
I know very well.
His hand shivers as he lifts the first cup
But once he mellows
He can do anything
He can, for example, be a good citizen,
Be bold
Let his urine gush forth on the whole world!
Wine of al Jabal al Akhdhar*
What if the herdsmen of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar
Started to spill their wine
Through streams and slopes?
This divine blood
Would it find its way
To the mouths of the thirsty and wretched
In the bottom of Hell
Or would this giant seize it
Sip it without mercy?!
A homeland
A homeland
As narrow as a dancer’s waist
Seduces you
But your dreams it can’t contain!
A Girl Pirate
No
I’m not alone
I’ve my solitude
Doesn’t it deserve company?
Here
On a beach where pirates left their odalisques
I’ll marry one of them
Savory
With the colour of ripe dates
And the smell of pollen
I’ll envelop her with my sadness and deprivation
She won’t escape the last pirate’s lust!
Letters on love
and Loss
(1)
A couple of seagulls
Strolling the sky of the Arabian Sea
Hail, o masculine earth
Liberty, fertility and growth!
(2)
O roaring waves
Forgive me
I can’t write even a single letter.
Everything delivers me to silence
And the gaze of emptiness!
(3)
Open the window’s curtain now
Or let’s go to Oman’s shores
A full moon lies there on the horizon.
I want her to see you
And be ashamed of herself!
(4)
Morning star
If you profess to be a prophetess
All the desert’s shepherds
Seeking immortality’s fountain
All the poets wandering in eternal loss
All the saints clinging to divine love
I, witnessing no beauty save in your eyes
We all would believe in you.
(5)
Say to the sand lady:
Be a little late this evening
I’ll go to the fount
Search for my soul
To cleanse it like a river in heaven
For my lady.
(6)
O pure angel
Take me as a dying wish
I’ll furnish the whole sky for you
Asking my dreams to sleep!
(7)
Surrounded by nothingness
I see no light at tunnel’s end
O lost ark
Where are you taking us?
*Al Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain) a mountain in the north of Oman (the translator).
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