For the next several Wednesdays, ArabLit will be running a series of poems by Somaya Elsousi, a Palestinian poet from Gaza who now lives in Norway. You can read more of her work at PEN/Opp, as well as the poem we ran last Wednesday — also in Ali Al-Jamri’s translation — “The Seagulls are the Gateway of the Sea.”
Her Scent
By Somaya Elsousi
Translated by Ali Al-Jamri
a melody, morning coffee
sorrow dripping with sorrows
her scent is absent
her radiance takes over the place
her scent, which mixes with her soul
the body’s yearning for her embrace
the sorrow of her eyes hovers far away
proximity’s flame, the lonely tale’s melody
her lips repeat that tune
her laughter alone owns what remains
the lustful inarticulateness that lives within her
her desire to become
the clamoring silence—
her voice alone can bear it
yearning’s great distances
the pains of the first word
the pleasure of new flight:
as usual, the storyteller steals them all
the conversation’s fragments
this first love, this feeling as if she were mine
melodies harmonize with the rhythm of absence
her scent—a forest of questions
the winds of a thought that did not complete
…another beginning
perhaps
an eternal soul’s sorrow
but we will not be satisfied
a scream rips the wall of the tale
the tale does not know how to listen
the silence of the thought
—how bitter it is!
green icons
inviting conversation
have gone offline
this morning
a new tab
a different person from a different time
comes with an intimate melody
one morning
a thought of her presence dominates
the ache of a look fixed on a memory
her scent was not a surprise
but I could not endure it
loss, we endure
it endures us
this loss was meant for us
at its gate, we remain lost
عطرها
لحنُ وقهوة صباح،حزن يَسْقُطُ حزنًا
عطرها غائب
ألقها يسبي المكان
عطرها ،امتزاجه بروحها
شوق الجسد لاحتضانها
حزن عينيها يحلق في سياق أبعد
حُرقة القرب،لحن الحكاية الوحيد
شِفاهها تردد اللحن،
ضحكتها وحدها تمتلك ما تبقى
شبقُ اللكنة المسكونة بها
شهوتُها لتكون
ضجةُ الصمت
صوتُها وحده يحتمل
فراغات الحنين،ألم المفردة الأولى
متعة التحليق من جديد
يسرقها الراوي كعادته
أطراف حديث
الشغف بأولى كأنها لي
تناغم اللحن مع إيقاع الغياب
عطرهُا هنا،غابة أسئلة
رياح فكرة لم تكتمل
بداية أخرى….
ربما
حزن روح أزلي
لكننا لن نكتفي
صرخة تمزق جدار حكاية
الحكاية لا تنصت جيدا
صمت الفكرة
كم هو مرير
أيقونات خضراء
شارة الدخول
الحالة غير متصل
في هذا الصباح
نافذة جديدة
آخر من وقت يختلف
هي بلحن حميمي
تأتي
ذات صباح
فكرة حضور طاغية
وجع النظرة ملتصق بالذاكرة
عطرها لم يكن مفاجأة
لكنني لم أحتمل
فقْدٌ نحتمله
يحتملنا
فَقْدٌ لم يُرسم لنا
على بوابته مازلنا تائهين
Somaya Elsousi is a Palestinian poet from Gaza Palestine who currently lives in Norway as an ICORN writer. She has published five poetry collections: (ناي العتمة) (En flöjt av mörker), translated into Swedish by Hana Hallgren, Jenny Tunedal, and Anna Jansson and published by Ellerströms in 2024; (فكرة، فراغ، أبيض), co-written with the poet Hala Al Shruf and published by Dar al-Adab in 2005; (وحدها وحدي). published in 2005 by Sanabel; (أبواب), published in 2003 by Dar Merit; ( أول رشفة من صدر البحر ), published in 1999 by the Palestinian Writers Union in Gaza. She has also translated many poems to English, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish and Norwegian that have been published in various literary anthologies and magazines.
Ali Al-Jamri is a poet, editor, translator, and educator in Manchester. He is one of Manchester’s Multilingual City Poets (2022-present). His work has been published in journals and websites including Modern Poetry in Translation, The Markaz, ArabLit, Poetry Birmingham, Harana and in anthologies. He has co-authored teacher texts with HarperCollins and is the editor of Between Two Islands: Poetry by Bahrainis in Britain (No Disclaimers, 2021) and ArabLit Quarterly: FOLK (ArabLit, 2021).