Embarrassing! But then English versions I found elsewhere didn't work for me. They will probably reveal their glaring deficiencies to anybody who really knows the original language. The two poems posted below this one are my own versions. He wrote down on a slip of receipt paper: Nizar Qabbani. Ayman was trying to add up his day's receipts. So that set the bar of comparison pretty high, the level of Darwish. We both greatly admire Darwish, Ayman from an intimate acquaintance, me from my usual interested rubbernecker's POV. I had made a typically flip remark to my friend Ayman concerning the Arabic poet Adonis. My Arabic vocabulary is limited to what I can garner from eavesdropping at the Fertile Grounds Cafe. The difference between what poet Jamie McKendrick refers to as knowledge of'language'and knowledge of languages. I've lately been reflecting on the nature of 'translation', weighing the merits of both the 'literalist' translation and the kind based on only a "passing knowledge" of the original source. Though I don't know Arabic (and my familiarity with Arabic writings is limited),I feel its spirit in your verse. I commend you on superb translation work. My Cub Scout Arabic isn't worth much, but the performance videos do transmit feeling at that "international language" level which maybe makes poetry what it is. There are quite a few YouTube videos of Qabbani performing his poems, and others performing them.
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