Two Poems
Original by Esraa El-Nemr
Translated, from the Arabic, by Rufaidah Gamal
Long Gap
In the center of my chest
there is a long, wide gap
like a pit
or an abyss.
I always hide it with transparent skin,
which I obtained from a public market.
Whenever someone walks past it,
they fall into it,
until my chest becomes filled with passersby,
beggars,
drifters,
and those who also know their way.
What frightens me is not that
my chest no longer has room for more of them.
What frightens me is that
one of them might think to raise their head
and catch me off guard.
Those Who Cling to My Body
When I return home,
I immediately take a shower
to get rid of those who cling to my body,
those who hit my shoulder,
those who trample upon my heart
unintentionally,
those whom I never look at,
and who never look at me.
They are the ones without arms or legs,
those who laugh without reason,
and those who cry
because every time they walk,
their heads fall off.
شق طويل
وسط صدري
شق طويل
شق مفتوح
كأنه حفرة
أو هاوية
أُداريه دائمًا
بجلدٍ شفاف
جلبته من سوق شعبي
كلما مر أحدُّ من أمامه
وقع فيه
حتى صار صدري ممتلئًا
بالعابرين
والشحاذين
والتائهين
والذين يعرفون أيضًا
طريقهم
ما يُخيفني
ليس أن صدري
لم يعد به مكان لمزيد منهم
ما يخيفني
هو أن يفكر أحدهم
أن يطل برأسه
ويباغتني
العالقون بجسدي
حين أعود إلى البيت
استحم مباشرة
لأتخلص من هؤلاء الذين علقوا بجسدي
الذين اصطدموا بكتفي
الذين دهسوا قلبي
دون قصد
الذين لم أنظر إليهم
ولم ينظروا إليّ
الذين بلا ذراعين
أو ساقين
الذين يضحكون بلا سبب
والذين يبكون
لأن روؤسهم
كلما مشوا
تقع منهم
Esraa El-Nemr was born in Cairo in 1991. She is an Egyptian poet and journalist who studied journalism at the Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University. In her third year of college in late 2010, Esraa joined Akher Saa magazine and also contributed to several other newspapers and websites. She focused on investigative journalism with a humanistic bent. In 2015, she started working for Akhbar Al-Adab newspaper,where she conducted numerous interviews with poets and writers and became one of the most important cultural journalists in Egypt. Her debut poetry collection, The Eyes That Left Swiftly, was published by General Egyptian Book Organization in 2020.
Rufaidah Gamal Thabet is an Egyptian translator who was born in 1987. She holds a master’s degree in English literature and a translation diploma. She participated in several literary and cultural magazines and newspapers including Al-Helal, Akhbar Al-Adab, The World of the Book (Alam Al-Ketab), Al-Thaqafa Algadeda, Al-Doha, Al-Faisal, and others. She also participated in the Arabic translation of The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Additionally, she translated into Arabic Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden and Ethel Puffer Howes’s Psychology of Beauty.
Translator’s Note:
Both poems, from El-Nemr’s debut poetry collection Eyes That Left Swiftly (2020), offer an intriguing exploration of the human condition and the complexities of interpersonal relationships. “Long Gap” delves into themes of loneliness, longing, and the fragility of human connection. “Those Who Cling to My Body” examines the notion of emotional detachment and the invisibility of personal struggles. My aim as a translator was to maintain the imagery, tone, and emotional depth of the original poems.