SHATHA’S GARDEN
Selected pieces from the poetry collection (Shatha’s Garden)
* Amer Fatuhi*
Yesterday Bouquets
An unexpected incident is your love
despite all the safety measures
that I followed
and all the instruction handbooks
that I read
I couldn’t avoid you
Despite the death
despite the desiccation
and despite the fatality
I long for you
your two rivers
and that girl
who is inhabiting me
That favorite
That Princess
That Shatha*!
A man, half of him is glass
a man, half of him is ashes
A man getting up at 2:00 am
Eats a cookie sweetened with chocolate
the very exhausted man eats
another piece of cookie
Drinks juice
brushes his teeth
Then he goes back to dreams of a woman
Lie down at that moment in unknown arms!!
Your Man
Only me
O forest of honey
My baby
my grapevine
and my greatest calamity
only me
excluding all who knew you
West and East
No difference
whether they desired you
Or loved you
I was and still am the man
While they were Tanatel* of paper
* Tantal in Iraqi folks stories is
a mythical harmful creature of the night.
Certainty
Nothing is more than my longing to you
except my worry about you
and you are asking, my darling ...
Do you love me?
when you know for sure
that you are my soul’s rose
And whenever I travel
And wherever I go
I return to you
September
In the fifteenth of September
On my birthday
You showered me with offerings
exiting, warm
sincere as mirrors
and you flooded me the most sweetest girl
with all kinds of gifts
In the twenty-eighth of it
you wrote to me with yearning:
"My shadow, my mirror, and the spring
of my smile
my soul-mate and my heart "
on the thirtieth
you disappeared!
Longing
Despite the sorrow
that is flooding my soul
as wide as the sky
Despite the extreme limit
that is between us
despite the brokenness of the songs
And the death of the echo
I am still longing
To that Shatha
That loving
That beloved
my soul’s twin
the quintessence of all women
Poetic Death
Thank you
When I woke and when I doze
Thank you for your love
Thank you for your depart
Thank you for your voice
Thank you for your silence
Thank you for any detail
We lived it together
Loud and quiet
Thank you for this poetic death
Which no death is before it
Or beyond it!
Enduring Rose
wondering, where she is today?
That Princess
that favorite
that precious like the eyes’ sight
does she still think of me?
Does she know how worried I am about her?
About my yearning?
That is pure madness?!
LATE BOUQUETS
The last thing I’ve dreamed of
and the last thing I could expect
is to hear
Your warm, velvet
voice
Thank you, the most desired girl
you have revived my thirst to you
woke me after hibernation Light ... that is untouchable
Auspicious ... Quietly nap on my shoulder
O God, how sweet
That palm pith, the moon
that head
That beautiful mouth
that drowns in me
and I drown in it
a flask of honey
and a sweet-clear water
Your voice is a wine I am addicted to
your voice is a dawn that I yearn to
your voice ... is a sweet pain
no medicine can help it
or magic can heal it!
Thank you
to that generous mouth
that showers me with Gifts
soft
like silk
reviving as spring rains
warm as young ladies
A question is chasing me
And devouring me in silence
How could a way from you
O my fate
And not reached by death?
This love ... is a written destiny
Neither a winner nor a defeated in it
Shatha’s Face
This cloud
This ... Friend, the extreme limit
Wipe my soul
Heal my wounds
like roses washed with dew
This cloud that depict Shatha’s details
loses me ... gathers me
Teaches me
the meaning of presence in absence!
*The word Shatha has two meanings; in general
means fragrance and in specific means
a female name, which symbolize her my love
as well as all the women I’ve loved.
* Amer Fatuhi*
Yesterday Bouquets
An unexpected incident is your love
despite all the safety measures
that I followed
and all the instruction handbooks
that I read
I couldn’t avoid you
Despite the death
despite the desiccation
and despite the fatality
I long for you
your two rivers
and that girl
who is inhabiting me
That favorite
That Princess
That Shatha*!
A man, half of him is glass
a man, half of him is ashes
A man getting up at 2:00 am
Eats a cookie sweetened with chocolate
the very exhausted man eats
another piece of cookie
Drinks juice
brushes his teeth
Then he goes back to dreams of a woman
Lie down at that moment in unknown arms!!
Your Man
Only me
O forest of honey
My baby
my grapevine
and my greatest calamity
only me
excluding all who knew you
West and East
No difference
whether they desired you
Or loved you
I was and still am the man
While they were Tanatel* of paper
* Tantal in Iraqi folks stories is
a mythical harmful creature of the night.
Certainty
Nothing is more than my longing to you
except my worry about you
and you are asking, my darling ...
Do you love me?
when you know for sure
that you are my soul’s rose
And whenever I travel
And wherever I go
I return to you
September
In the fifteenth of September
On my birthday
You showered me with offerings
exiting, warm
sincere as mirrors
and you flooded me the most sweetest girl
with all kinds of gifts
In the twenty-eighth of it
you wrote to me with yearning:
"My shadow, my mirror, and the spring
of my smile
my soul-mate and my heart "
on the thirtieth
you disappeared!
Longing
Despite the sorrow
that is flooding my soul
as wide as the sky
Despite the extreme limit
that is between us
despite the brokenness of the songs
And the death of the echo
I am still longing
To that Shatha
That loving
That beloved
my soul’s twin
the quintessence of all women
Poetic Death
Thank you
When I woke and when I doze
Thank you for your love
Thank you for your depart
Thank you for your voice
Thank you for your silence
Thank you for any detail
We lived it together
Loud and quiet
Thank you for this poetic death
Which no death is before it
Or beyond it!
Enduring Rose
wondering, where she is today?
That Princess
that favorite
that precious like the eyes’ sight
does she still think of me?
Does she know how worried I am about her?
About my yearning?
That is pure madness?!
LATE BOUQUETS
The last thing I’ve dreamed of
and the last thing I could expect
is to hear
Your warm, velvet
voice
Thank you, the most desired girl
you have revived my thirst to you
woke me after hibernation Light ... that is untouchable
Auspicious ... Quietly nap on my shoulder
O God, how sweet
That palm pith, the moon
that head
That beautiful mouth
that drowns in me
and I drown in it
a flask of honey
and a sweet-clear water
Your voice is a wine I am addicted to
your voice is a dawn that I yearn to
your voice ... is a sweet pain
no medicine can help it
or magic can heal it!
Thank you
to that generous mouth
that showers me with Gifts
soft
like silk
reviving as spring rains
warm as young ladies
A question is chasing me
And devouring me in silence
How could a way from you
O my fate
And not reached by death?
This love ... is a written destiny
Neither a winner nor a defeated in it
Shatha’s Face
This cloud
This ... Friend, the extreme limit
Wipe my soul
Heal my wounds
like roses washed with dew
This cloud that depict Shatha’s details
loses me ... gathers me
Teaches me
the meaning of presence in absence!
*The word Shatha has two meanings; in general
means fragrance and in specific means
a female name, which symbolize her my love
as well as all the women I’ve loved.
