Maram al Massri

Maram al Massri Poems

Maram al Massri Biography

Maram al-Massri was born in Lattakia, Syria, to a family of artists and studied English literature at the University of Damascus. She worked as an interpreter in Lattakia before moving to Paris, where she has lived since 1982. In 1984 she published her first book of poems, I Threaten You with a White Dove, followed by A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor. Her work has been awarded many prizes and translated into several languages.)

The Best Poem Of Maram al Massri

Poems

2
How foolish:
Whenever my heart
hears a knocking,
it opens its doors.

3
Desire preoccupies me
and my eyes shine.
I stuff morals
in the nearest drawer.
I switch into a devil
and blindfold my angels
just
for a kiss

14
Women like me
do not know how to speak.
A word remains in their throats
like a thorn
they choose to swallow.
Women like me
know nothing except weeping,
impossible weeping
suddenly
pouring
like a severed artery.
Women like me
receive blows
and do not dare return them.
They shake with anger;
they subdue it.
Like a lion in a cage
women like me
dream . . .
of freedom . . .

20
I killed my father
that night
or the other day -
I don't remember.
I go escaping with a suitcase
filled with dreams
and amnesia,
and a picture of me
with him
when I was young
and when he carried me
on his forearm.

I buried my father
in a beautiful shell
in a deep ocean,
but he found me
hiding under the bed
shaking with fear
and loneliness

40
He wanted
no more than this:
a house, children
and a wife
who loves him.
But he woke up one day
and found that his spirit
had grown old.

She wants
not more than this:
a house and children
and a husband who loves her.
She woke up
one day
and found
that her spirit
had opened a window
and fled.

52
He came to me
disguised in the body of a man
and I paid him no attention.
He told me
'Open up.
I am the holy ghost.'
I feared disobeying him
and I let him kiss me.
He uncovered
my shy breasts
with his gaze
and turned me into
a beautiful woman.
Then he blew his spirit
into my body,
rumbling
thunder and lightning.
And I believed.

103
Like grains of salt
they shone
then melted.
This is how they disappeared
those men
who did not love me.

Translated by Khaled Mattawa

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