Poet of the Week: Safia Elhillo
second quarantine with abdelhalim hafez
the lyrics do not translate
arabic is all verbs for what
stays still in other languages
تصبح to morning what the
translation to awake cannot
honor cannot contain its rhyme
with تسبح to swim tomake
the night a body of water
i am here now & i cannot morning
i am twenty-four & always
sick small for my age & always
translating i cannot sleep
through the night
no language has given me
the rhyme between ocean&
wound that i know to be true
sometimes when the doctors
draw my blood i feel
the word at the edge of my tongue
halim sings أغرق aghraq
i am drowning i am drowning
the single word for all the water
in his throat does not translate
halim sings teach me to kill
the tear in its duct halim sings
i have no experience in love
nor have i a boat & i know he
cannot rest cannot swim
through the night
i am looking for a voice with
a wound in it a man who could
only have died by a form of
drowning let the song take
its time let the ocean close
back up