The Sea Is Far-off: I Hear Its Sigh

By Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati
Translated by Salih J. Altoma


The sea is far-off, but I hear it sighing
I see ships and seagulls carried far away by the waves
sailors and drunkards trapped in Aphrodite's charm
losing their sanity in darkness
and I, between al-Ma`arri and al-Du`ali, *
search for a manuscript
not knowing its author
or who let it vanish: Sayf al-Dawlah
or Kafur? *
in an age when no soul cares for anyone
or dares to rebel

(*) al-Du`ali (d.689) one of the early Arab grammarians, al-Ma`arri (d. 1057/58) the great medieval Arab poet with whom al-Bayati identifies himself, Say al-Dawlah (d. 967) who personifies the Arab chivalrous ideal and Kafur (d.968) of Fgypt.

 


The Nightmare

By Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati
Translated by Salih J. Altoma


A ghost chases in darkness the author of  “the little man” *
sniffing old books on the shelves of bookstores
here and there in Baghdad's streets
but returns in defeat to the coffeehouse
not finding those he chased yesterday
for they fled to exile like flocks of birds
no more prey to hunt
graveyards and prisons are overcrowded with the rest
this is the carnival of death at its apex
Ishtar has become a blind wolf
feared by all
and has incarnated the city's soul
after she was taken captive by the invaders
and under their embargo
a tattered old woman
weeps in secret
and sleeps hungry to dream:
overtaken by nightmare
she cries out:
nothing but winds that trifle with garbage
or the footsteps of a ghost chasing in darkness
the author of  “the little man.”

(*) The title of a short story by one of the most talented Iraqi writers, Abd al-Malik Nuri who died recently as another victim of the current conditions in Iraq.

 

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (1926-1999), one of the Arab world's leading poets, received his B.A. in Arabic (1950) from the Higher Teachers Training College in Baghdad. Best known for his revolutionary, mystical-oriented and exilic poems, al- Bayati lived most of his life outside Iraq as an exile or as a cultural attaché and published more than twenty volumes of poems and several other works. His poetry has been translated into numerous Western and Asian languages.

Salih J. Altoma (translator) - Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Comparative Literatue, has been affiliated with Indiana University since 1964. He has served as director of Middle Eastern Studies (1986-1991) and chair of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department (1985-1991). Altoma published a number of works in both Arabic and English on modern Arabic literature, and Arabic-American/Westem literary relations and edited recently the 2000 volume of The Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, volume 48(2000) which was dedicated to Arabic-Western Literary Relations.

 
Copyright © 2003 by Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. Copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the editors are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.