Elegy Number Six Poem by Nouri al Jarrah

Her arm on the bed...
The open window bright on her arm,
colour undulates in light,
door and chair are witness
her sleep
a month long...
the room is radiant,
the glass silent
brings in new images...
with each breeze from the passage
uncertain shadows tremble.

No foot ever walked this paving,
no sound rises,
an eye, kohl half-applied
only death was bewildered and uncertain.
Death was forbidden here,
a chair blocked its way.
It stayed apart,
awaiting the tremble of light on her arm.

Translated by Nawar al-Hassan