What Your Gaze Did
(Magadeer Min Jafnayki – Latitudes Beneath Your Eyelids)
Ahmed Shawqi
Translated from the Arabic by Eman Hassan
Is a draught that slakes. Those volumes
left me cross-eyed, condemned, naked
and bewitched. Two shots pierced— my mind,
drunk and overcome (also by AsomBroso),
dresses me up in silly costume. I wear it:
you can’t help but love this sorry outfit.
Love—what is it, but that old dialectic of master
and slave? Despite subjective meanings we give
a swell of gaze, the lure of one Ojo to another—
no matter the brouhaha—cocktail name or salt
& lemon garnish. Can’t be bought or conveyed
like a laptop or lipstick. When asked, I tell them
it’s an echo, stretched taught like skin
pulled over a Bedouin drum, until the drummer
stops playing, leaves you outside the music
tent, alone in the desert, turned into junk.
Like that old Howard Jones song goes,
does anybody love anybody, anyway?
Or the one about if love is a red dress–
then hang me in rags. Look away.
Let me hide my tattered ego from
your two glowing embers. The latitudes
of your eyes are daggers; I’m not strong
or wise. I’ve drunk my fill of their depths
until stabbed, the world spun dark, drowned
and bled— all over my funny dress.
مقاديــر
من جفنيـك
مــقـــــاديـرُ
من جَــفنَيكِ حَــوًلـنَ حَــالِـيَـــا
فــذُقـتُ
الهَــوَى مـن بعـــدِ مَـــا كـنتُ
خَــالِيَــا
نَـفَـــذنَ
عَـلَـيَّ الـلُّـبَّ بالســهـم
مُـــرسَــــــلًا
وبالسِّــحــر
مَـقـضِـيّــاً، وبالسَّـيفِ قـاضِـيـا
وألـبَـــسـننـي
ثــوبَ الضـنَـى فَـلـَبِـســتُــــهُ
فــــأحبــــِب
بـهِ ثـوبـــا وإن ضـمَّ بـالـيـــــــا
ومـــــــا
الحُبُّ إلا طــاعـــــةٌ وتَـجـــــاوُزٌ
وإِن
أكــثَـــروا أَوصَـــافَـــهُ
والمَـــعــانِـيـــــا
ومــــا
هــو إلا الـعــينُ بـالــعينِ
تَـلـتَــــقـي
وإِن
نـوَّعــــوا أســــبــــــابَـهُ
والـدَّواعِــيـــــا
وعـنـدي
الهَـــوَى مَـــوصـــوفُـــهُ لا
صِـــفـــاتُـه
إذا
ســألـونـي مـــا الهَـــوَى؟ قـلـتُ
مـــا بِـيــا
وبـي
رَشَـــــاّ قـد كــــان دُنـيـــايَ
حــــاضِـــرًا
فـــغـــادرنـي
أشـــتـــــاقُ دُنـيـــــايَ نائيــــــا
سَـــمَـــحتُ
بـروحي فــي هــواهَ رخـــيـــصَـــةً
ومـن
يـهـــوَ لا يُـؤثِــر عـلـى الحُـبِّ
غـالِـيــــا
ولـم
تَـجـــــرِ ألـفــــــاظ ُالـوُشــــاةِ
بــرِيـــبَــــةٍ
كـــهـــذي
التي يَـجــري بـهــا الدمعُ واشِـــيــا
أقـــــولُ
لمـــن وَدَّعــتُ والـــركـبُ ســـــائــرٌ
بـرغـمِ
فــــــؤادي ســــــائــرٌ بفُــــــؤاديـــــا
أمـــانّــــا
لـقـلـبـي مـن جُــفـــونـكِ فـي
الهَـــوَى
كــفــى
بالهَــوَى كــأسًــا وراحًــا وســاقِيـــا
ولا
تَـجــــــعـــلـيــه بـيـنَ خَـــــدَّيـك
والنَّــوَى
مـنَ
الظـلـم أن يَـغــــدو لِـنارَيـنِ
صـــالِـيـــا
ولـم
يَـنـدَمِـل مـن طـعـنـةِ القَــــدِّ
جُـــرحُــــهُ
فَـــرِفـقــــا
بـه مـن طـعنـةِ البـــَيـنِ دامـــِيــــَا
Ahmed Shawqi (1870–1932) was born in Cairo, Egypt and is considered to have revolutionized Arabic poetry. Hailed as “The Prince of Poetry,” Shawqi studied Law in Paris and was heavily influenced by the early French Modernists. His poetic genius, which had revealed itself early on, won him a scholarship to France, where he resumed his study of law at the Universities of Montpellier and Paris, respectively. It was during his stay in France that he was heavily influenced by French drama, particularly the plays of Molière and Racine. His twofold contribution to the Arab literary tradition resides in poetry and in his pioneering introduction of poetic drama into the Arabic literary tradition.
Shawqi is most known for his work as a playwright and authored six tragedies and one comedy. Three out of the six are historical plays with patriotic themes: The Death of Cleopatra, Qambeez and Ali Bey Al-Kabeer. The other three plays are more embedded in the Arab Islamic background: Majnun Laila, Antara and The Princess of Andalusia.
Shawqi spent almost a decade in exile in Spain later in life, after speaking against the British colonial occupation of Egypt during World War One, a period that became known as his “Blue Period.” His collected poems are published in an exclusive anthology entitled Sawqiyyat. He returned to Egypt after the war, where he became a member of the Parliament. He died in 1932.
Eman Hassan received an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University. She has both Kuwaiti and American roots and has spent time growing up in both places. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Blue Guitar, American Literary, Psychic Meatloaf, and Toe Good. She received a first honorable mention for her poem “The Blossoming” for CALYX’s 2010 Lois Cranston Memorial Prize.
Translator’s Note: While the poem in its original Arabic tugs at the heartstrings in a profound way, its literal translation into English is heavy-handed, with a splash of cheesy. One of the main differences between Arabic and Western poetic aesthetic is how emotion is utilized. While Western Postmodern sensibility seek to indirectly evoke a reaction through subtle measures, Arabic poetics uses a more direct approach, unabashed in its emotional declarations, using form and heavy lyric to give rise to images and the rhetoric of love and loss.
How does one render a classical Arabic love poem into English? My approach in “What Your Gaze Did” was to maintain a fidelity to the “spirit of the language” through capturing the range of emotional tone, yet transforming some of the traditional imagery and mournful pontificating tone of pining for lost love into a humorous narrative. Drowning in the eyes or the memory of the eyes of a lover transforms into a modern narrative: the classical Arabian metaphor of being euphorically drunk from the gaze of a lover turns into the universal act getting drunk, literally and not figuratively, to forget.
In his essay On the Different Methods of Translating Friedrich Schleiermacher writes that higher discourse is born out of the spirit of the language and wants to be perceived from the emotional stance of the speaker uttering the words. Similarly, he says that the original utterance, the spirit of the language, dies out if it is exactly duplicated. In similar vein, I sought to transform the original poetic utterances of Ahmed Shawqi by maintaining the spirit of the diction in the poem and emotional stance of the voice of the speaker, with a contemporary twist.