She Wakes Up
Ibrahim Saafin
Translated by Nizar Sartawi

She wakes up
glances out a window caused to bleed
by the sound of the wind
she spots a sniper leaning over the barricade
and a martyr and a wounded man lying on the rubble

What’s this – the water pouring
akin to wailing auctions
a gloomy horizon, thunder roaring
No lightning here to brighten the visage of the clouds
and the earth’s interior is a grave

She sinks into soft sleep for a day
or for indefinite time
then she awakens to a lovesick grapevine in eye of
the sun
She sings for the fig and orange trees
and olive trees
roaming upon the Mount of Olives
as roosters crow at the break of the dawn

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تصحو
د. إبراهيم السعافين

تصحو...!
تنظرُ من نافذةٍ أدمتْها أصواتُ الرّيحْ

فترى قنّاصًا يتكّئُ على المتراسِ
وعلى الأطلالِ شهيدٌ وجريحْ

ما هذا؟! ينصبُّ الماءُ مزاداتٍ
تُعْوِلُ، والأُفْقُ ظلامٌ والرّعدُ يدمدمُ
لا برقَ ينوّرُ وجْهَ الغيمِ
وبطنُ الأرْضِ ضريحْ

تذُهب ُ في النّوُمِ النّاعمِ يومًا
أو دهرًا
تصْحو، والكرمةّ تتدلّهُ في عيْنِ
الشّمسِ،
تغنّي للتينِ وللنارنج وللزيتونِ
السّارحِ في جبل الزّيتونِ
وديوكُ الأنوارِ تصيحْ

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Ibrahim Alsaafin, a Jordanian poet, critic essayist, novelist, playwright, and academician, received his PhD from Cairo University in Arabic literature in 1978. After graduation he worked at different universities, including Yarmouk university (Jordan), the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (USA), King Saud University (Saudi Arabia), UAE University (UAE), and Sharjah University (UAE). Currently he is a professor of modern Arabic literature and criticism at the University of Jordan. He also serves as a chair and member of numerous editorial boards, a member of the board of trustees at several universities and cultural institutions, and a member of the Jordan academy of Arabic

Alsaafin has to his credit six collections of poetry, two plays, and two novels, as well as a few unpublished MS’s. He also has penned 35 books of literary studies and literary criticism, and hundreds of literary articles published in prestigious literary journals in different Arab countries. Moreover, he has supervised more than a hundred M.A theses and Ph.D. dissertations in Jordanian and Arab universities

Alsaafin has received several literary awards, including Jordan State Award (1993), King Faisal International Prize (2001), and Palestine State Award for Literature (2020)


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