Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
A Cloud in Summer
I fling the door wide open
to a cloud swimming on the breast of the horizon.
Birds are fluttering around it,
and perch near me to rest a while
or peck at a few grains of wheat
that escaped the mill’s mouth.
I open all the windows in the house, I drill holes in the walls
I chase away the curtains and the veils
And I pray — for the first time in my rusted life
I pray, asking him , whom they told me
is a ladder’s length higher than the clouds:
Why don’t you breathe a sigh in my direction
and pique the cloud’s curiosity?
Why don’t you draw a road for it alongside my balcony?
The cloud runs to a distant, confused destination.
No tears fall on the dry spear of grain,
and no one greets it.
It has a blue expanse and I must finish
digging a well – the cloud might return soon
and I become its confused and distant goal.
Translated from the Arabic (Syria) by Marilyn Hacker