translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Alone, now you are free.
You pick a sky and name it
a sky to live in
a sky to refuse
But if you want know
if you are really free
and to remain free
you must steady yourself
on a foothold of earth
so that the earth may rise
so that you may give
wings
to the children of earth
below
Copyright © 2019 by Khaled Mattawa. Reprinted with the permission of Khaled Mattawa.
What would I do
for a smidgeon
of your rebellion María?
As a woman to trust
the halo of your intuition
I know you know
courage plummets
easily from cliffs of doubt
both imposed and self harvested—
How to make manifest
what the mind knows
but the eye cannot yet see?
How to pluck Hope
from the terraced gardens
where it grows?
I think about the nature of change
the transfiguration from grain to woman
the audacity of salt to embolden water into ocean
the urge to break free
From Killing Marías: A Poem for Multiple Voices (Two Sylvias Press, 2017). Copyright © 2016 by Claudia Castro Luna. Used with the permission of the poet.
What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.
What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was
whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever
was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them
so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is
being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that's happening here.
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the one to whom every that belongs!
From The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems, translated by Coleman Barks, published by HarperCollins. Translation copyright © 2002 by Coleman Barks. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins. All rights reserved.