As a part of its continuing effort to share a portion of the literary wealth of Arabic poetry with the English reader, The Arab American News translates a poem by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani.
In this poem, Qabbani describes a bizarre encounter where he knocks on a stranger’s door and asks her to host him.
A lonely man
If I knew what I wanted,
I wouldn’t have come to you like a frightened cat
If I knew what I wanted
If I knew where to spend my night
If I knew where to lay my forehead,
Coming up to you wouldn’t have appealed to me
Don’t ask me: Where I came from, how I arrived and what I want.
These are absurd questions that have no answers
Do you have matches and some cigarettes?
Do you have a newspaper, no matter what its date is…
All newspapers have nothing new
Do you have– my lady– another bed
In the house, I am always a lonely man
You, go to sleep
I will make my coffee on my own
For I am always a lonely man
The roads assassinate me…
The maps and borders reject me
And as for the mail…
I have not received mail in centuries
Hand me the cigarettes and disappear
That’s all what the lonely man needs
Don’t shut the doors behind you
My feelings are encrusted with ice
Don’t shut anything…
Sex is not what I want
-Translated by Ali Harb
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