غاباتي تعجُّ بالنّمور

My Jungles Are Crowded with Tigers

Amal Awwad Radwan

Translated by Nizar Sartawi

I am the one mounted by the desolation of loss

still..

praising.. the charm of your serenity

Never have I forgotten.. the memory of your sacred herbs

When they turn.. into a unique scream!

*

Never have I forgotten herbs..

not breathed.. save by a breeze..

laden.. with the bunches of my yearning and longing

Nor have I forgotten your gazelles

pulsing with my dreamy tenderness!

***

But for centuries

I’ve been prohibited from entering your paradise!

That is where I desire to be.. as it melts generously

That is my greenhouse.. so filled with sighs

No longer does my life go in the nude..

When you throw the windows of your tenderness… wide open!

*

Your majesty

I swear by your bends

by the bottom of your valleys

My cloud caravans have become so scorching

and this wild leonine thing within me

is becoming a giant

grazing my forests.. so crowded with tigers

***

O my belle

I was born.. to burn for you

I’ve become so proficient in leaning

on your clouds

on your yearning.. on your madness

and I have long submitted.. to my dream