Nour Balousha’s “Feet Unable to Arrive” appears in the new anthology from Trace Press, Arabic, between Love and War, edited by Norah Alkharashi & Yasmine Haj, and is reprinted here with permission.
ArabLit’s Nashwa Nasreldin, who translated this poem for the collection, says of Balousha’s poem:
When I first came across this stunning poem by Nour Balousha, it immediately gripped me. Though it opens with a familiar image of grief (weeping), it quickly moves into the abstract, pulling our feet toward — not even a place — but ‘something I don’t know.’ From then, the mesmerizing repetition of a powerful phrase of longing “I want” becomes both hypnotic and strangely energizing as the listing pulls us upwards into an almost exultant state of hope, before bringing crashing back down into a ‘well of corpses / and orphans.’ There is skillful work at play here, in the most subtle, heartbreaking hands of this poet.
Feet Unable to Arrive
By Nour Balousha
Translated by Nashwa Nasreldin
I want two eyes that can withstand all the weeping
and feet that can arrive at something I don’t know
because there is a thing we don’t know; it is there we wish to return
like the prairie that returns to its natural state
and shrieks
like the smiles that return to their natural state
and hide
like the roads that return to their natural state
and ruminate over the footsteps of passersby
I want something to return to
and a backdoor to escape
I want to embrace everything I lost in one fell swoop
I want a well crammed with hands and limbs
I want a rod to lean on
and a road to walk on
and a tear I can drop into all the warm harbours and stories
so it may dissolve
so the salt dissolved within it
can mutate into something new
even if it morphs into a doll
I’ll hold it dear
I want a beach
to love and which will love me
and love us
I want a light
that does not radiate
nor enters any place
I want it to be real
I want it to build
to restore something
to move towards us
I want one child to come back to life
even if he came back blurred
and weeping
I want him to come
I want to run
towards something
not a forest
not an ocean
not a story
but an idea
a single idea about safety
that disappeared in a well of corpses
and orphans
The Arabic of the poem is available in the bilingual collection, Arabic, between Love and War, edited by Norah Alkharashi & Yasmine Haj.
Nour Balousha is a Palestinian poet, writer, and journalist based in Brussels. She is a member of the Palestine Writers Union, and contributes her expertise to numerous newspapers in the region. She is currently completing her MA thesis in Middle Eastern and North African Studies at Stockholm University.
Nashwa Nasreldin is a poet, writer, editor, and translator of Arabic literature. She has translated Shatila Stories, a collaborative novel by nine refugee writers (Peirene, 2018), and co-translated Samar Yazbek’s memoir, The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria (Rider, 2015). Nashwa holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poetry, translations, articles, and reviews have been published in the UK and internationally. She has worked with ArabLit Quarterly and is Editor at the Poetry Translation Centre, UK.
Nour Balousha’s “Feet Unable to Arrive” is reprinted from Arabic, between Love and War, edited by Norah Alkharashi & Yasmine Haj, courtesy of Trace Press. Copyright 2024.”