Two Poems by Sargon Boulus

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Sep 30, 2021
Two Poems by Sargon Boulus

Two Poems by Sargon Boulus

By : Nabil Salih نبيل صالح

After the roads


In the shade of a wall, I rest my burdens

after I have crossed the roads

and the eternal storm

wailing in my head’s grottos

is finally content with silence

beneath the wing of a vulture

fallen in the ruins

where the crime happened…

The wolf hovers around

near the camps of wounded:

In his eyes a thicket of claws

but a star might appear.

A faithful star might appear for us. 


To A Visitor after the Apocalypse


If you come knocking

at the end of history’s night

on the door

and the butchers are asleep

over their victims’ shreds

If you finally come

to fulfill the dream

of the wounded miserables

with your blessings

after the flood recedes

and the last cries of war. . .

And if an Eve, rubbing her eyes, sleepy

opens up

Then shove Eve aside

kick (and hit!)

the serpent’s head

so that it returns

to the Torah’s cave in haste

Then stab your cigarette stub

between Adam’s lips

and ask this creature:

“Why?”

And begin the interrogation…

 

From Sargon Boulus’s (1944-2007) al-Awwal wal-Tali (Cologne: Dar al-Jamal, 1992)
Apr 6, 2017 Lebanon
York College Galleries By :
York College Galleries

Helen Zughaib: Arab Spring (Unfinished Journeys)

Late last year York College Galleries in Pennsylvania hosted Arab Spring (Unfinished Journeys), the solo exhibition of artist Helen Zughaib.

The exhibition’s featured paintings, installations, and conceptual works were created between 2008 and 2016. In these years, Zughaib watched the 2008/2009 attack on Gaza from afar, responding with scenes of grief-stricken, weeping women paralyzed beneath the fall of bombs. She also returned to her native Lebanon for the first time since fleeing war-torn Beirut in the 1970s, and produced a series of text-based paintings. Later she was hopeful when uprisings swept across North Africa and the Middle East, cloaking her figures in spiraling floral patterns; but soon began to document the number of Syrian civilians killed since 2012 with a series of public performances and related images. More recently, she has created a number of conceptual works that describe the difficulties of the mass migration that has swept across Europe from North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, particularly for children.

Narrated by the artist, the short film below (produced by York College Galleries) takes viewers into Arab Spring (Unfinished Journeys), revealing what inspired many of the included works and how concepts and forms aim to record the mounting devastation of this time.

Thanks to Matthew Clay-Robison, director of York College Galleries, for allowing Jadaliyya to feature this film.  

Helen Zughaib at York College from Jadaliyya on Vimeo.