We present an extract from The Book of Trivialities, the new book by Majed Mujed.
In a series of evocative vignettes, celebrated Iraqi poet Majed Mujed lyrically traverses the fraught landscapes of beauty, longing and resistance in a country at war.
The Book of Trivialities, originally written in the poet's native Arabic, is rendered into English by award-winning translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid. It's part of Skein Press's Solstice Stories series, featuring creative collaborations between writers, translators and visual artists.
كتاب الهوامش
1
الحبُّ هو أنْ يكون لديكَ أملٌ
يكفي لتزرع زقزقةً
وتنتظر حتى تنبتَ
ويصير لها ريشٌ ومنقار.
1.
To love is to have hope.
It's enough to sow a chirping in the earth:
you wait for the sound to sprout
and grow feathers and a beak.
2
ما البحرُ؟
سماءٌ نيّئةٌ في مطبخِ الموسيقى،
ما الموسيقى؟
فوضى تنظِّم رؤيتَنا للحياة،
ما الحياة؟
سؤالٌ يركضُ ما أن يقفَ يموت،
ما السؤال؟
شكُّ العارف،
ما الشكُّ؟
قلبُ اليقين،
ما اليقين؟
أنْ نحبَّ
ما الحبُّ؟
أنْ لا نسأل.
2.
What is the sea?
Raw sky in music’s kitchen.
What is music?
A chaos that orchestrates
our vision for life.
What is life?
A question that’s running—
when it stops, it dies.
What is the question?
The knower’s doubt.
What is doubt?
The heart of certainty.
What is certainty?
Love.
What is love?
We cannot ask that question.
25
شاعرٌ فلَاحٌ وشاعرةٌ ربّةُ بيت،
هو يذهبُ ويأتيها بترابِ الملحٍ والفلفل الأحمر،
وهي ممتنّةٌ تهيئ له الماعون الأبيض،
هكذا كلَّ يومٍ يضطربُ العالمُ بينهما،
هكذا كلَّ يوم يدوران،
هو ملعقةٌ تضعُ ترابَ الملح والفلفل الأحمر
وهي ماعونٌ يتموَّج فيه رجاءٌ أبيض،
يدوران لكي يكتبان طفلاً،
وما إنْ تتدفَّقُ النقاطُ وتصيرَ على الحروف
يجلسان مندهشين وينتظران،
حتى تكبرَ القصيدةُ ويصيرَ فيها شعرٌ.
25.
A poet who’s a peasant
and a poet who’s a housewife:
He goes out and brings her grains of salt and red pepper
while she gratefully readies the pot.
In this way, each day the world’s disturbed between them.
In this way, each day they dance,
he a spoon bearing salt and pepper,
she a pot wherein a white hope ripples,
they spin, and like this, they write a child.
As soon as the dots flow out to crown the letters,
they sit, surprised, and wait,
until words grow, and become poetry.
The Book Of Trivialities is published by Skein Press
