Three Poems by Sinan Antoon

The New God

We looked at the map
All those rivers we had crossed
searching for that new god
the priests said
was born for our sake
When we reached his homeland
We found crowds
marching in his funeral procession
We joined them
They told us
of all those rivers they had crossed
searching for the new god
the priests said
had died for their sake

لإله الجديد

نظرنا إلى الخارطة
كلّ هذه الأنهار عبرناها
بحثاً عن الإله الجديد
قال الكهنة
إنّه ولد من أجلنا
وحين اهتدينا إلى موطنه
أبصرنا بشراً، مثلنا، يشيّعونه
في مواكب مهيبة
مشينا معهم
حدّثونا
عن كلّ تلك الأنهار التي عبروها
بحثاً عن الإله الجديد
الذي قال الكهنة
إنّه مات من أجلهم

The Day’s Catch

The day shuts its last eyes
My arms are tired oars
I drag my nets back to my bed
and empty out the minutes
dead fish

صيد اليوم

النهار يغمض عيونه الأخيرة
ذراعاي مجذافان متعبان
أجرجر شباكي إلى سريري
وأفرغ الدقائق
أسماكاً ميّتة

Garment

With words
and the eye’s needle
I sew this garment
for silence

I thread a stray cloud
to a feather from an extinct bird
the dust of a star
to a fallen leaf

When I finish the garment
The angel of nihilism
standing before me
slips it on
but unsatisfied
casts it off again
and yawns

I take another thread

ثوب

بخيط الكلمات
وإبرة عيني
أخيط هذا الثوب
للصمت

ألظم غمامة تائهة
بريشة طائر منقرض
غبار نجمة
بوريقة سقطت من ريح

أخيط هذا الثوب
وألبسه ملاك العدم
الذي يقف أمامي
لا يروق له
فيرميه أرضاً
ويتثاءب

أستلّ خيطاً آخر
وهكذا

Sinan Antoon is a poet, novelist, scholar, and translator. He has published two collections of poetry and four novels in Arabic. His most recent work is The Book of Collateral Damage (Yale University Press, 2019). His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, and World Literature Today. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, and The Nation. He is an associate professor of Arabic literature at New York University. His works have been translated into thirteen languages.