A Visit

BY MOAYED AL-RAWI

When sleep weighs heavy on my eyelids,
  every morning,
A mysterious bird comes to knock
on my closed windows and
   pulled down shutters

Perching on the snow covering the courtyard,
the bird knocks on the pane.

It does not chirp.
It only wants to talk about the
mountains it crossed,
the cities it beheld,
       the people to whom it sang its songs.

The bird comes to spill the scent for me,
From the tape of bygone memories.
       The Mysterious bird, with its wings,
       steals the air from me.
 

Translated from the Arabic by Noel Abdulahad

Moayed al-Rawi is a prominent Iraqi author, essayist, poet who lives in Germany.

This poem appeared in Al Jadid, Vol. 10, no. 48 (Summer 2004)

Copyright (c) 2004 by Al Jadid