A Story
By Sargon Boulus
Translated by Miles Cayman
Suddenly by chance and without warning
The table had
Vanished, the guests dispersed
And with the rain poured down onto the roof
Anonymous bullets
Carrying out vengeance’s promises to the letter
Or announcing the beginning of a lively rural wedding
And I found myself
In the center of a city no one knew me in
Telling the strangers at intersections
A story they didn’t believe a word of
Some of them stared back with the eyes of wolves
Some glanced at my ragged shoes
And some didn’t see me
As if I’d stripped myself naked past the bones
Or leaked a grave secret, inciting a terror
Then snow began to fall on the world
Miles Cayman studies Arabic at the University of Chicago. You can read his poetry and translations in Subnivean, GASHER, and The Paris Review, among other publications.
Sargon Boulus (1944–2007) was an Iraqi poet and prolific translator of world poetry into Arabic. He wrote six original collections including Arrival In The City of Where (1985).