Granada 18 (pronouns)
November 13th, 2009 at 23:59Translation is like a sex change operation: to change the form in order to make shine the essence, the beauty, the truth of that which lies within. And yet no form or shape is ever adequate.
I’m reading a love poem from Al-Andalus in a language twice removed from the original Arabic. My English version is based on a Spanish translation. As I have no Arabic, I don’t feel bound by gendered pronouns. He-his-him doesn’t speak to me, it is you I care about:
When the wine you drank
put you to sleep and the eyes
of the watchmen closed alsoI approached you timidly
like one who seeks to come close,
but on the sly, pretending not to.I crept towards you, imperceptible
as a dream, moved myself close
to you, softly as a breath.I kissed your throat, a white jewel,
drank the vivid red of your mouth
and so passed my night with you
deliciously, until the darkness smiled,
showing the white teeth of dawn.
Adapted from AFTER THE REVELS by Ibn Shuhayd, 992 – 1034, Córdoba,
translated into English by Cola Franzen.
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Poems of Arab Andalucia, translated by Cola Franzen from the Spanish versions of Emilio García Gómez (City Light Books 1989)Posted: November 13th, 2009
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