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Taher Riyad
Palestinian Poets
Riyad was
born in 1956 in Amman and was unable to finish his University
education because of financial difficulties. He has translated
works by Elliot, Becket, Dylan Thomas and others into Arabic.
Riyad participated in poetry festivals all over the Arab world.
His work is featured in Bruta’s poetry selection “Poets of the
End of the Century”. Riyad is co-director of a publishing house
in Jordan, and has published a number of poetry collections. His
works are considered to be among the most original, combining
the eloquence of classical poetry and the innovation of
modernist Arabic poetry.
From " Signs
"
I . I am not
the shade who upholds the bare tree
against its dissolution,
I'm not hunger to strap stones round my belly and suck
your emaciated breast.
I am think like the figure of fear ,
I contain the thirst of embers
to transform themselves back to branches ,
I do not pray for what's to come
- nothing will come -
and I don't concede to reverence .
It is a chain of ants that raised this earth
and now erodes it slowly.
II. Your
face is purer than the mirror ,
luxurious and more eager.
Colours rejoice around your head , rejoice
and Ah , they suffer.
Offer death a libation for the past ,
it may accept and stay.
And it's the same : your destroying a lover
or your destroying things out of love .
Now the mirror's clouded for you ; break it
and say : " My eyes see better ."
III. I just
forgot
nothing more
I forgot
the salt of creation scorches my eyes
and the sand of insomnia
I try to remember:
Does water describe the shape of fountains,
their pattern of fluidity ,
and indicate the day's greenness,
or does water have
the shape of drowning ?
IV. Rejoice
twice:
when you see the sand turn wet and soft
and when it becomes water
Twice
rejoice:
tomorrow will be overcast
and shade compose a sky
And hide
just once
for a scoundrel might inherit the earth
and scratch the living.
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