Joumana Haddad

Joumana Haddad Poems

Joumana Haddad Biography

Joumana Haddad was born in Lebanon in 1970. She is a poet, translator, journalist and teacher. She has worked at the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar since 1997. She speaks seven languages, including Spanish, and is preparing a doctorate thesis on the subject of poetic translation. Publications: The time of a dream, 1995; Invitation to a secret dinner, 1998; Abyss, 2000; I haven't sinned enough, anthology, 2004; The return of Lilith, 2004. She has published a number of works translated from Italian, French and Spanish, and has translated a number of Arab poets into French, Italian and Spanish. She is preparing an anthology of modern Lebanese poetry in Spanish. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and English, and have been published in literary magazines such as Alhucema (Spain), Fornix (Peru), Hojas Sueltas (Colombia), Kalimat (Australia), Europe (France), Supérieur inconnu (France), as well as in two anthologies put together by Abdel Kader Janabi on modern Arab poetry and published in Paris: Le poème arabe moderne (the modern Arab poem) and Le verbe dévoilé (The uncovered word). She has interviewed recognized international authors, including José Saramago, Paul Auster, Umberto Eco, Yves Bonnefoy, Peter Handke, Wole Soyinka and Antonio Tabucchi.)

The Best Poem Of Joumana Haddad

Don'T Let It Linger

I will be strewn on your bed
like fingerprints of fire.
I will be implanted in your night
and my day will spill out from your jar.
I will know your rooms by heart, word for word,
your verses line by line.
I will run and run in front of you
I will run and run in front of you
and I will catch the wind's hand and pull it along.

My mouth will slide from your forehead to your neck
from your neck to that most significant crux.
I will unload my dreams on your shoulders
and you will let me wander.
Come along.

The earth is collapsing on me,
but I will not flee into myself.
Lust wants to taste me,
but I will not guide it to my home.
My dress is devouring me.
I will not expel it alone.
Come along.

You barge into my head
and I veil myself with fantasy and chase you.
Come, I won't call out to you again.
Come, cling to me
and don't waste my dizzy madness.
Beware not to let my fragrance linger.
Don't let it remain behind
once I am gone!

Translated by Khaled Mattawa

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