A Selected Poem: Nineveh
06 January, 2019
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Mohamed Abdul Hai (1944- 1989) is a great poet indeed. His poetry is widely read today because there is vitality, strength, force and precision in it. These are the qualities applauded by his readers; both the elite and the ordinary people highly appreciate his outstanding skills employed in his poetry.
His following poem, according to al-Sir Khidir who selected and translated some Sudanese modern poetry, shows beautifully that this well established poet has the mastery of poetic language:
Nineveh
Why are you in the belly the ship
Blue flames in the sea and sun in the skies
Over the town!
From the Sahara of sea water through dimness
Bald-headed you are, naked and weak
A shock, a violent glow
In the colliding visions.
Have no fear! It is the earth. So, do not
Forget the roots
Have no fear! Vainly you try to escape
This resurrection.
You will see
You burnt face in the old panic
Twisting and vanishing
Through the spasms of the nebulae.
Through the flame
You will then see
Your face is a diamond that purifies
And floats
Carrying in its glitter the face of the town
O legendary laughter of the sun
At the fear of the melancholy masses.
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