Fatiha Morchid

 Waraqun Achik

 (Leaves of Passion)

 

Poems

First edition, Dar Attakafa, Casablanca 2003.

 

Second edition in both languages Arabic and French (Feuillets passionnés). French translation by Touria Ikbal, Marsan Edition, Rabat 2008. (See translated books)

 

Poem fron the book

Leaves of Passion

 

1

 

Pregnant is the shell of the soul

Between me and ink

A sea of labor

 

How to be released

When the sail of the heart

Is but leaves

Blown in the winds

 

2

 

I stumble

On the tail of the night

I weave

A cover

From the letters of the body

To shelter myself

From your chill

 

O Setting star

 

All the pathways of the soul

Lead to you

But each time I open a window

At the back of my heart

The paths forsake me

Heading

 

Towards  you

 

O gamester

 

Toying with the tides of my blood

Like a faraway island

 

 

Come back

 

To the shore of dreams

A seagull

Come back a shell

Come back a wave

And break

At the heart cracks

Naked

Like a sail

Wedded to the wind

 

3

 

 

With a bared soul

And bared hands

I come to you

 

Cover me

With eyelashes

For when

I am in love

I become a baby

Embracing the universe

 

In a pair of breasts

 

4

 

Awed

I stretched

My wings

To the wind

To hug

Your clouds

O woman

 

Give me

 

A reason

To brace me against

The flights

Of the heart

 

And lend me

A hand

To bypass

All the Paths

To the sugary

In you

 

O bitter

 

Woman

 

5

 

O dreamy-eyed woman

I dream…

Of curbing my drifts

Towards the pit of seduction

In you

 

In the dead of night

I sneak

To your discreet soul

Hoping

To stumble on

Who in you

Inspires my torture

 

Where are you hiding him?

 

And where does my shadow conceal itself

when he meets you ?

 

6

 

In the twilight of the crowd

I dole out my steps

Randomly

I stumble

Like a child learning to walk

Like him

I search for a breast

To catch my fall

 

Costly

The price of my incandescence

In you

As I search

For a destiny to my dream

 

7

 

I will take away

The talisman of your love

From around my neck

And cast…

My poems

Into the sea

 

I will bathe

Into the seven waves

And sacrifice

A rooster for the tribe

I will disable

O lady

The charm of the stars

Unravel

The shades of the vines

 

And tumble down

 

Into the pit

Of my agony

Mourning

My healing

 

8

 

You came back to me

 

You opened the curtains of my soul

And sun rays started anew

Weaving a handkerchief

Of wild flowers

On my pillow

 

Thorns reminded me

Of a beard neglected

 

It doesn’t matter

I will bathe in your eye

 

9

 

Used to defeat

What do I care

O woman

To be defeated in you

 

When your lips

Are the sweetest battle

 

10

 

You left

And your perfume conquered the place

 

How can I evade it

When your breath

Fills mine

 

You left…

The warmth in the couch

And the shade of the candlestick

Ask about you

While the tipsy…cup of coffee

Still whispers to your lips

 

11

 

When I leave you

I meet you in my depths

A rescue boat

On which I sail the void

As I wait

For the return of meaning

 

To meaning

 

In your presence

 

12

 

I turn away

From the sun

I sink…

Under the clouds

Fondling the shade

Of a poem

For a lady

 

In absence

 

I bitterly sip my coffee

Searching between the lines

Of a newspaper

For a piece of news

That ignites

My amazement

 

 

I ride

The sluggish day

A fleeting melody

Stops me

A vision

Chases me

I pass by…

A dating memory

A kiss

Tempts me to the verge

Of tears

 

And when the evening comes

I wrap myself

In the black of your eyes

And dream of the moon

 

13

 

Your absence comes over me

with the tune

Of Abdelwahab

I sing

“it’s not me who’d cry”

 

A tear

Defies me

 

14

 

Down the slope

Of that mountain

Between the shrubs of longing

Rises

The smoke

Of my anguish for you

 

The melodious river bubble

Provokes me

The sleepy willow rustle

Strikes my ear drum

 

I hear

But wailing

 

Another morning

Without the splendor of your eyes

Clears up

Apologizing

As if the impossible

 

15

 

The sun’s flame

Dies out

On a day

Without a date

A taste of ash

Overwhelms me

 

Your white shirt

Turns pale

On my breast

As the black of waiting

Intensifies

 

I beseech

A pen of fire

To melt down

My coldness

For you

 

Vertigo engulfs me

When the sun

Winks at my drafts

 

16

 

I cast my look

Into the lap of waves

The soul livens up

And my vows

Flow

Towards you

 

Bitter Is

The solitude of the boat

Wild is this vastness

And overflowing…

Is my thirst

For you

 

17

 

Whenever

My heart thrills

With rapture

Sorrow

Looms up

In my depths

Such is your presence…

A bewitching sunset

That charms me

 

18

 

Night comes

Banishing

All hope to meet

The moon

 

I look through

The soul seams

At the image

Of a radiant cloud

Crossing the sky

Where water is far away

And the pillow distant

 

 

Night comes

Banishing

All hope to meet

The moon

 

Filling

The moist horizon

With boredom

And blocking the air

laden

With the fragrance of kisses

 

I inscribe

The parts of your body

I haven’t read yet

On the leaves of longing

While waiting

For the first breath

Of dawn

 

19

 

Alone

You could

Incarnate

All the women

I loved

And all those

I dreamed

Trampling

My delights

With their high heels

 

Alone

 

O fragrance

Summing up

All the aroma of roses

O essence

Of one thousand grapes

You seat in throne

On my fissures

And rained

My summer

Evenings

 

20

 

Thirsty I am…

O pour yourself

Sweet

Into the pores of my soul

I will kneel down

In veneration

For I am from a country

That worships

Raindrops

 

21

 

Your perfume

crouches under the bedsheet

 

And on the bedside

rest

Your little things

 

Protecting me

In your absence

from sleep temptations

 

22

 

He has « Rights »

Over you…

 

While I have

But my heartbeats

So do not blame me

My lady

If under your bed

You discover

My pulse

 

23

 

Since I learnt

About your lonely night

My lady

I play

The stars

And dance

With the moon

 

24

 

whenever the dark of the night

wearies the heart

And the expectation of light

overwhelms eyelids

 

I furnish

Blackness

With white memories

And promise the full moon

An imminent encounter

 

25

 

To me you were

Saplings

Growing in my shade

I comb the soil

With eyelashes

And water it

With ardent thrist

 

Would I be unjust

To stand

In the face of winds

That did

unveil

Your fruit

 

26

 

The breath of my shouts will shake

Your deaf trees

And your wild branch

Will shiver in my shade

The echo will let fall

The remains

Of virgin leaves

 

When I succomb to oblivion

 

27

 

I saw her

Bathing in your eyes

As we poured glass

After glass

Celebrating

The return of the rain

 

You warned me

Of the shards of glass

That fell

Off my hand

 

No worry

 

Blood dried up

In my veins

 

28

 

The heart valises

Are packed

Do not hang on

To a smile…

Unable

To dissipate the fog

Of a date

Tasting like a farewell

 

This afternoon

Will not upset me

Since I still

Have a date with the moon

 

29

 

The sky will sulk at me

If I dispute

The night of your eyes

My shadow will abandon me

And light will loathe me

 

And if I reveal

The cracks in my breast

forced by your looks

Others will marvel

At the cruelty

Of my patience

 

30

 

Each time I seek

A destiny for my dream

You take away sleep

From under my eyelids

 

A tear cleanses

Slumber remains

And insomnia

Will in white dress

wed my night

 

What if

The heart of the night

Were tenderer

Than the heart

Of my beloved?

 

31

 

I ran after a dream

That kept me awake

But at the break of dawn

hugged me

What do I care

About Its embrace

After the thrill

Of seeking

 

32

 

I carry

Your tattoo

In the folds of the heart

How can one

Born with each heartbeat

Die out

 

If a part of me

Backs away

Another part

Longs

For the needle prick

whenever it feels

The tattoo

 

 

A rioutous

Was my heart

And is still

Unable

To learn from mistakes

 

33

 

If poetry

Like your love

Opens a breach

In the dark

How many

Mu’allaqat poems will it take

To overcome

Obscurity ?

 

34

 

What if

I surrendered

 

To the pursuit

Of the void shadow

Inside me

Consuming

The little light

That my devotion to you

Left behind

 

What if

I surrendered

To a slow death

amidst your notebooks

 

What if

I surrendered

To my inability

To ignite

A fiery love

daying out

In my palms

 

And then retreat

Into the cocoon

Of forgetting

 

35

 

Of the magic of the beginning

There remains

But a few letters

The echo of a joy

crucified

By pins on the wall

 

And the sighing of train

At the end platform

 

36

 

I walked

On sands

That once caressed

her feet

The waves were dying

On her footsteps

And the heart floating

On the rhythm of her memory

 

37

 

Now that your magic is gone

My lady

I yearn

For the days when amulets

Enveloped me

Like a spider web

And I strutted dozing

In the enclosures of my retreat

Savoring my frailty

And doubts

 

And exalting your name

My lady

 

Now that your magic is gone

I yearn

My lady

For my death

 

Translated from Arabic by Norddine Zouitni