AMER AL TAYYEB

 

1

 

Even when I loved, I loved you. I pretended to be doing something else.

And when by coincidence I found you, I felt that you had been there ever since.

 

Once while I was in town, I saw a boat swaying as if it carried you loomed far away.

Bewildered, you seemed.

And I went on pretending while I was dying. I opened my eyes wide and naively faked that I would forever have sight.

 

2

 

Betrayed are the beloved ones; citizens, like pigeons, plainly coo.

To rented homes we come back to find the night as dim as an edentate mouth.

And our years are Hijri since the birth of Christ!

 

3

 

I don’t know if I will live, nor if I will be safe. Will water surround me north, south, east, and west?!

I don’t know if what I uttered is what I meant, nor whether what I said were words!

 

If so, you had better quickly pass while I attempt to forget what I thought of. Quickly cross before I forget what I said about the lives of others, their shadows and deaths.

 

However, my thoughts and words are like the leaves of trees. I will never know if they will ever touch or meet!

 

Translated By Fidaa Alboiny

 

AMER AL TAYYEB

 

AMER AL TAYYEB is an Iraqi poet who was born in 1990 in the city of suwairah, wasset. He is a member in the general poets and writers’ union in Iraq. He published his first poetic collection (More than a death by one finger) by the General Egyptian Organization Of Book. Then his second collection (He stands as two trees) which won the Literature competition of   The General Union Of The poets and writers in 2018 under the age of thirty – five. His third collection was published in Tunisia by the Oumniah Publishing House and it was titled (Green Blood Cells) while his fourth collection was titled as (The Rest in Other Person’s Life) which it was published by Line and Shadows Publishing House in Jordan. He has also others collections like (It Is Not Only For Chung Tsu) by Al 3idoun Publishing House. (The past Verbs Forever) by the General Egyptian Organization of Book, (Far Away Sky as an Open Tomb) by the Al Nahdah Publishing House.  His poetic texts were published in most of the Local and Arabic newspapers. Some of them were translated into English, French, Spanish, Kurdish and Persian, too.