A poem by Tmadhur Karim.
Come and Go
Translated by Saaeed Al- Rowdhan.
This poem is by Tmadhur A. Karim, a poet and short story author from Baghdad, Iraq. She published a collection of stories and a book of verses that appeared in al-Mothaqaf, Iraqi Critic, and Anthology.
Her poems are all in Arabic, yet Saaeed Al- Rowdhan has translated the poem below into English. He is an Iraqi translator, novelist, and researcher from Maysan. Al-Rowdhan has published several poetry and story collections in Arabic during his career and has translated English short story collections such as Secret Villages by the Scottish poet Douglas Dunn.
Among his prominent translations in English are:
- Children as Actors in John Lyly’s Endymion as an Elizabethan Drama (A study).
- From a Bank to Another (Poems).
- The Whirlpool (Novel).
English translation:
Be quick when you come Be light like a butterfly
Be gentle like the morning light
Compassionate like the friend’s smiles.
Extend your hands to my heart, There, where the place of the soul And steal it as you want, Look at it !
It is a spirit of a mystic
A spirit of a poet
Like perfume in brides’ bottles.
When you come Don’t be shy of my dreams That preceded me to my final resting place Of my half poems Of the thoughts
That were running around In my head, Of the years of my life
That were exhausted of waiting.
Don’t be hesitant, Just do everything, And go….. Don’t forget to be kind
To the fathers and mothers To the wax on Its pots
To the sweethearts
To the flowers armed with magic
And secrets To the trilling cries of joy
Between the lips of girls
To the fingers tattooed with henna In total silence
Without an uproar
Come and go, Cold , as we know you Like winter nights
Neutral, like clocks
Resolute, like brave guns.
Come and draw ends
Never mind
To the tears on my children faces,
Don’t be anxious O visitor of life
This heart is forgiving.
What’s wrong with your hands?
They are trembling.
Here is my soul
Pick it out.
As you do with the brave
With great pain and agony
Don’t be careful with me
There is a heart of a soldier,
From soldiers of South Inside me.
When you come
Be quick…. Like a shooting star,
Don’t be shy of my unfinished books, Of my clothes, Of my rings, Of my smoke packets, And of my thoughts- head
With which I filled the notebooks
And the suitcases ready Behind the door’s shutters.
When you come, Don’t look at these…. Do as you were ordered And go….
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