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
A Short Story
Weary
His glasses reflect
All the world's agonies.
The cup is on his left
The newspaper stretched out on his thighs
Drowned
In worlds
His owl glasses can only contain.
Tender, balmy bodies
Part us sometimes.
Has he no right to at least dream of them?
2
A Quenched Fire
Ah
How sweet is pain
Amidst the diseased
And disfigured crowds!
Such a delicious pain
That tickles my bones like electric
And travels from soul to eyes
Squeezing all moments of alienation
And loss
With warm drops
From the glitter of daze and innocence
In which my quenched eyes drowned!
3
Promise
I will wake up
Just tonight
To follow
The path of my sly pain
I won't grieve
I won't weep
Indeed
I'll bite my despair
Till dreams spill from my molars.
But before that
O oblivion
Hug me with no mercy!
O ever straying mind,
Embrace me
To make the whiteness of my eyes
Vast enough for all the world's discord!
4
To My Father
I wish I had anything
I could resort to from fear
As you resort to your dawn prayers.
O prayers, be gentle with me
Proceed slowly
Come, my father,
Barter with me:
I'll give you everything:
Rebellion
Glory
Daydreams
Everything, everything my father!
And may you give me
A tear
From those you shed
While kneeling in prayer
Late at night.
5
Night is Mine
No...
This night is mine
No one will share it
Save this injured eagle
Beating its ribs between my lungs.
No...
This night is mine
With all its murmur and moan
With all its prayer and blasphemy
O injured night, come,
I have all it takes to shelter you:
An exile
Impetuous
Transparent
Like the genesis of creation!
6
Farewell
I shall not be an easy and free prey
Farewell
O lost Ark,
Farewell
O dumb Pilot,
Farewell
O pride of Motanabbi*
Farewell
O mutterings of Ibn Al Roomi*
Farewell
O madness of Nietzsche
Farewell
O dreams of Guevara
Farewell O Mires
I'm leaving
I shall drown in the desert
I shall clasp this sacred silence
I shall sing for it
As platonic lovers sing for their beloved till death.
* Motanabbi (915-965) is a widely read poet in the Arab world, and perhaps the most famous of all the Arab poets (the translator).
**Ibn Al Roomi (836-896) is an Arab poet (the translator).
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