ناداني تمثال باسمي..
كان أبي يطعمه خلسة
كلما زار المتحف..
يقلم أظافره..
يرشه بعطور نادرة جدا..
يُسمعه مقاطع مذهلة جدا من قصائد صلاح فائق..
لشحذ خياله البرونزي..
أحيانا يمنحه تذكرة سفر
ليكسر إيقاع الرتابة
ويزور غابات في مادغشقر
ويدردش مع قردة الغوريلا
ثم يقبل جبهته المثلجة
مثل إبن بار ..
أحيانا يدس في جيبه
عملات أجنبية
وقطع شوكولاطة..
تدوي ضحكته المجلجلة
حين يخاطبه :
سيكون لك شأن عظيم..
يا ابني الأثير
مات أبي مختنقا
بزخات ذكريات حرجة..
ظلَّ التمثال يبكي
طوال الوقت..
حد ذبول عينيه الضيقتين..
يتنهد في خلوته..
لم يعد يتكلم
صار ضريرا
مسمرا في مكان حالك..
يعزيه سياح كثر
نزحوا من بحيرة مهجورة..
هاهو يموت ببطء
لم ينتبه إليه أحد .
*******************************************
The statue
By Fathi Muhadub / Tunisia
From Arabic Dr. Yousef Hanna / Palestine
A statue called me by my name
My father was sneakily feeding him
Whenever he visits the museum
He was trimming his nails,
Sprinkling him with very rare perfumes
Reciting him very amazing cantos
from Salah Faeq’s (1) poems
To sharpen his bronze imagination...
Sometimes he was giving him a traveling ticket
To break the rhythm of monotony
And to visit Madagascar forests
To chat with gorillas.
Then he was kissing his snowy forehead
Liske a dutiful son.
Sometimes he slips into his pocket
foreign currency
And a piece of chocolate
His rattling laugh reverberates
When he addresses him:
ــ You will have a great deal
O my favorite son.
My father suffocated
By showers of critical memories.
The statue kept crying
All the time
Until his narrow eyes faded
He sighs while he was alone,
No longer speaks,
And become blind.
Nailed in a dark place
Many tourists,
who fled from a deserted lake,
Attribute him.
There he is dying slowly
No one paid any attention to him.
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
(1) Salah Faeq: An Iraqi leftist poet, was born in 1945 in the city of Kirkuk and he is a member of the Kirkuk literary group.
*******************
كان أبي يطعمه خلسة
كلما زار المتحف..
يقلم أظافره..
يرشه بعطور نادرة جدا..
يُسمعه مقاطع مذهلة جدا من قصائد صلاح فائق..
لشحذ خياله البرونزي..
أحيانا يمنحه تذكرة سفر
ليكسر إيقاع الرتابة
ويزور غابات في مادغشقر
ويدردش مع قردة الغوريلا
ثم يقبل جبهته المثلجة
مثل إبن بار ..
أحيانا يدس في جيبه
عملات أجنبية
وقطع شوكولاطة..
تدوي ضحكته المجلجلة
حين يخاطبه :
سيكون لك شأن عظيم..
يا ابني الأثير
مات أبي مختنقا
بزخات ذكريات حرجة..
ظلَّ التمثال يبكي
طوال الوقت..
حد ذبول عينيه الضيقتين..
يتنهد في خلوته..
لم يعد يتكلم
صار ضريرا
مسمرا في مكان حالك..
يعزيه سياح كثر
نزحوا من بحيرة مهجورة..
هاهو يموت ببطء
لم ينتبه إليه أحد .
*******************************************
The statue
By Fathi Muhadub / Tunisia
From Arabic Dr. Yousef Hanna / Palestine
A statue called me by my name
My father was sneakily feeding him
Whenever he visits the museum
He was trimming his nails,
Sprinkling him with very rare perfumes
Reciting him very amazing cantos
from Salah Faeq’s (1) poems
To sharpen his bronze imagination...
Sometimes he was giving him a traveling ticket
To break the rhythm of monotony
And to visit Madagascar forests
To chat with gorillas.
Then he was kissing his snowy forehead
Liske a dutiful son.
Sometimes he slips into his pocket
foreign currency
And a piece of chocolate
His rattling laugh reverberates
When he addresses him:
ــ You will have a great deal
O my favorite son.
My father suffocated
By showers of critical memories.
The statue kept crying
All the time
Until his narrow eyes faded
He sighs while he was alone,
No longer speaks,
And become blind.
Nailed in a dark place
Many tourists,
who fled from a deserted lake,
Attribute him.
There he is dying slowly
No one paid any attention to him.
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
(1) Salah Faeq: An Iraqi leftist poet, was born in 1945 in the city of Kirkuk and he is a member of the Kirkuk literary group.
*******************
