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Two Poems by Sargon Boulus
Oct 20 2010
![[Sargon Boulus. Image from Samuel Shimon]](/content_images/3/SargonBoulus2bysamuelshimon-1.JPG "[Sargon Boulus. Image from Samuel Shimon]")
[Sargon Boulus. Image from Samuel Shimon]
Railroad
The glass of the subway windows
is foggy.
Shapes escape across it,
as if from a demon,
and are sorted out behind us as “bygones.”
The shrieking of the wheels on the rail.
The appearance of the next station,
at the bend of a tunnel
full of wailing.
A few vagabonds on the platform
gulping alcohol from bottles hidden in paper bags.
It is the same void rising
from night’s end in any city
overstuffed with the living and the dead:
Paris, Berlin, London, New York.
The end of the west.
The end of the line.
The end rail.
A Pouch of Dirt
Um Muhammad,
the fortuneteller,
the woman from whose thin neck
dangles what initially appears
to be a necklace,
but is nothing but a black leather pouch.
She said
it contains
a handful of the homeland’s dirt.
She sat on a stone bench,
at the Hashimiyya Square,
in Amman,
with thousands of others,
waiting for a visa,
to any country.
She said
that when
she crossed the border,
she knew
that she might never see it
again in this world.
Therefore,
she will carry it,
like a yoke,
wherever she ends
up.
Wherever she ends
up, she will carry
this black pouch
of dirt.
From Azma ukhra li-kalb al-qabila (Beirut/Baghdad: Dar al-Jamal, 2008)
Tr. Sinan Antoon
مقطع من رواية أطفال الندى
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3 comments for "Two Poems by Sargon Boulus"
Hayat
wrote on October 20, 2010 at 03:17 PM
the poems of the late, eminent Sargon Boulus recounts and depicts human tragedy in such graphic, compelling portraits, which, though unmatched even with a digital camera, still leaves the soul bare, empty, bleeding ...!
Zilzal al Kamudi
wrote on November 02, 2010 at 03:17 PM
admittedly this is my introduction to sargon boulous's poetry and what a fantastic one it is! thank you sinan.
noura Erakat
wrote on November 15, 2010 at 03:59 PM
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I'm enjoying reading the translated poems posted here. Thank you, Jadaliyya for publishing literary material. Thank you, Sinan, for the great translation and the powerful language.