
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