The poet can turn into a wolf, by Ghayath Almadhoun

The poet can turn into a wolf

 

She said to them: look at the mountain so that you can see me

They looked at her so that they could see the mountain

And Damascus seemed closer whenever I told you about it

For the bodies that we see in the mirror seem closer than they really are

And those that carry our souls have gone very far away

And now must take the nearest means of transport to return

And so on . . .

The poet can turn into a wolf

If he thinks about the woman he loves in a systematic way

And may become a seat in a park if he is polluted by prose

The city can become a changing room backstage at a small theatre

In a town that nobody’s heard of for no convincing reasons

And I could also love you for no convincing reasons

Or could have met you five minutes before the man who touched your heart

If I’d had a passport that was recognised

These days

And you may be the only justification I can give the security man at the airport

For why I look thinner now than in my passport photo

And also all the words that I whispered in your ear could form a possible erotic poem

If they were picked up again and recycled in another woman’s ear

And I think there’s some hope for some hope

Since up to the date of the writing of this text, sensors in modern physics

Haven’t arrived at any convincing answers

Regarding the influence of the sound waves of your words in my ears

On poetry in the Middle East

And I could fall in love with you again

For history repeats itself, as Karl Marx says

And our house could welcome friends

Or our daughter could have your features and my eyes

And I could have not left Damascus that autumn evening in 2008

Which would mean we never actually met

And I would never be able to tell you that you seem closer whenever I talk to you about Damascus

Or whenever I talk to Damascus about you

For the bodies that we see in the mirror appear closer than they really are

And those that carry our souls have been eaten by a predator

Called the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Ghayath Almadhoun

Translated by: Catherine Cobham