
Fatiha Morchid
Ayyaa sawaadin tukhfi ya Qawsa Quzah
« What Dark are you Hiding O Rainbow »
Poems
Marsam publications, Rabat 2006.
Poetry book published in both languages Arabic and French. French translation by Abderrahman Tenkoul. Marsam publications, Rabat, 2006.
(see translated books)
Poem from the book:
What Dark are you Hiding
O Rainbow?
A bohemian I am
In search of a frame
To contain my charms
What do I care about
The ugliness of the wall
…..
How can I infiltrate
My madness
To one who professes
Madness
…..
He’s got plenty of boredom
To embrace stillness
On the peaks of the shooting star
…..
He rephrases
Old questions
With a new paintbrush
That doesn’t care about answers
…..
His silence
Covers me
My rhetoric
Strips him naked
…..
My lips burn
Whenever he holds a cigarette
Tight between his lips
…..
Sufficient to me
The red of his tongue
The guy kneeling down
Over my nudity
All quivering
Lost
Among colors
…..
A single look from him
Shoots forth suddenly
Ploughs the clouds
Then sink I
Into my orphanhood
…..
And a paintbrush
Slain by passion
At the spine
Like my bones
Can no longer
Stand erect
…..
I fiercely crave
The conceit in fingers
That gather my fragments
From junk time
Paint my eyelids
With ash memories
And plant nails
Like beauty spots
On the immaculate
…..
Here’s the sea
In a white shirt
Climbing me
In the magnificence of its shyness
At its bottom
I settle down
Like sand
What if my ink-like feelings
Disturb
Its clarity
…..
Nothing
But my meadows
Draw together its dispersal
As they turn green
Beneath its water
…..
With life you gamble
For the a fleeting
Moment
When you haven’t yet
Left
My breast
…..
The jealousy of the paintbrush
Smears me
Black
Whenever your eyes
Touch my white
…..
I caress
Your fatal bending
Over my weariness
And life stands up
An elderly
Longing for beginnings
…..
Painful
Are desires
When lavished
Like a flame
On a prisoner
Of ash
…..
You perpetual
Deserter
I engraved you
As faith
In my heart
…..
Sleep safe
At my feet
I am the guard
Of our night
…..
I dressed in
Scarlet
This morning
To tempt
Fate
…..
I love you this morning
And I each morning
Retrieve my beauty
From your fingers
I gather up distances
To journey into you
…..
You want me a balm
For a wound
Inflicted by another
Should I apologize for her sake
Or to a wound
Inflicted by another
Hurting in my breast
…..
Scattered we are
In our rubble
Striving to live austerely
To endure
Absence
…..
Don’t apologize
For an error
That led me
To you
…..
Go on
…..
I promise
Not to lose the way
Twice to your heart
Wherever you turn
My sweat
Leads to you
…..
I dance
To the rhythm of your pulse
Which are my fingers
From yours?
…..
What did you commend
The blue
That pours over my feet
And supplants
Your rashness
…..
A smart student
You know me
By heart
Why do you stutter
Whenever a question
Rises between us?
…..
I ripened
On embers
That carouse with the horizon
…..
Blow over me
Blue
Yielding your destiny
To temptation
Diverse
Like seasons
Unique
As my breast
When it succumbs
To your palm
…..
The more inaccessible I am
The more persistent you are
When I soften
You fall for another
As if your faithfulness
to me
Is a betrayal to yourself
…..
You besiege me
Like death
Whenever a new birth
Surprises you
…..
My joy in you
Fills me
To aching
I fear me
When I fall for an illusion
Of which you are the truth
And from you I fear
A truth that dissipates my illusion
…..
O Lord
Assist me with particles of clay
For his storm blew me out
…..
You demolish and build me up
You build me up and demolish me
I rise
Like an abyss
My splendor
In my disarray
…..
My blood looks like you
As you walk
On my wound
Stripped naked
Of certainty
…..
You are now
On the verge of life
In me
About to die
…..
Like a blind woman
I feel for
The colors of your soul
To what estuary
Are you luring me
O stubborn river?
Banks are void
But for a boat
That a breakdown retains
Reciting its precepts
To the mud
…..
His embers
In the solitude of creation
Burn none but him
…..
lying in bed
He asks about a mountain
That passed us by
Shooting
Like a meteorite
Don’t break free
From between my ribs
No pulse afterwards
…..
A child you are
Chasing butterflies
And crying
When their colors
Stain your fingers
…..
I am all butterflies
If one burns up
Another rises
From your ashes
…..
Here I am
By the fireplace
A witness
To your burning
Here you are
In my entrails
A witness
To my desire
…..
The day you take off
Madness
To wear
The caution suit
I’ll withdraw
Like sweat
From your pores
…..
Here you are
Teasing space
With your uproaring absence
…..
What will I do
With Time
After you?
…..
And What dark
Are you hiding
O rainbow
Translated from Arabic by
Norddine Zouitni