Amjad Nasser
Bent Branches
I want to clear my head
Of the sermon’s remnants and the good wordI want to purge my heart
Of the first love’s ruins and fragments of glassI want to clear my eyes
Of the moon’s torn nets
And curtains of closed windowsI want to purge from my voice
The acidity of the song
And cries wrapped in silver chordsI want to rid my shoulders
Of birds’ nests
The mute birds of the morningI want to cast off from my body
The garments of war and peace
And the dust of opposing conquestsI want to purge my soul
Of signs of obedience
And clusters of forgivenessI want to erase from the paper the poem’s rot
And the futility of reminiscenceI no longer wish for ashen roles
Or exposure to an array of spectral light
I want
Only
To hear the tremor of the world
Beating against the walls of my heart
And to see
The light
Dissolve
In the stagnant waters of the eyeI want to walk alone
And shut the door of the pen behind me.[Nicosia, July 1983]
Translated by Ibrahim Muhawi
Page(s) 210-211
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