The following are translations of poems by the Omani poet Hilal Al Hajri (1968-) from his first collection titled: “Night Is Mine”, (Muscat: 2006):
(1)
Ibn Khaldun*
Ibn Khaldun lied
When he claimed that man
Is “civilised by nature.”
Never have I found a way
To tame this beast
That
Flows in my blood!
(2)
From the Gulf to the Ocean
My homeland... the rhymed old man
I greet you with reproof.
For you I’ll sacrifice an exile and land.
I greet you with reproof...
How can I see you like a palm
That in treason has touched no other?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like a heart
Not scared by the terror of religion or ritual?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like a face
Not soaked in mud?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like a child
Not aged by dreams of poverty and hunger?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like wine or a pure poem?
To hell with pretenders!
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like a fine steed
Sent just to conquer?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like Arab blood
Like the palm in roots and bounty?
I greet you with reproof...
How can I find you like a cloud
I will ride?
Did I dream or reveal?
Good evening my homeland
... is there such a cup
On which I splinter into letters
One after another?
(3)
Keeping What’s to Be Kept
You’ll succumb.
What you gathered is escape
You’ll be folded and those you saw will be wrecked.
Great difference is there between horrors you ride
And between what they cohabited and what they drank.
You came to them while the era was accused
Of what you go through, and in you it fights.
You loathed them, while there’s no destination
Nothing but chests in turmoil,
Nothing but retreating, if there’s ever an advance,
Nothing but illusions when they went down.
Safe journey, old boy!
Where to? To yourself where there’s no design,
No impostors or swindlers
No callous youth sees himself as stranger
Where freaks aren’t judges
Whose foes are Arabs and rebels
Where for a freeman exile is
Warmer than pure death.
*Abul Rahman bin Mohammed bin Khaldun (1332-1406) is a Tunisian born famous Arab historian and sociologist (the translator).
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