In this poem, Translated by Worod Musawi & The Poetry Translation Workshop, Iraqi poet Abboud al Jabiri fixes on a deceptively simple image and, when elaborating on it, manages to convey complex and delicates feelings about loss and acceptance.
An poet and translator, Abboud al Jabiri, was born in Najaf in 1963. A member of the Iraqi Writers’ Union and the Arab Writers’ Union, he was one of the founders of the Iraqi Youth Literature forum. His two poetry collections are Index of Faults (2007) and Lean on his Blindness (2009). Since 1993, he has lived and worked in Amman, in Jordan.
This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.