History Is Ripped Apart In The Body Of A Woman (Excerpt 2) Poem by Ali Ahmad Said Esber

THE WOMAN:

Here I am spilling into everything . . . shattering
and I still do not know myself.
Who am I? Stranger, have you hidden me
in my own words, in my heaving?
How can I see what I hold secret, how can I make peace with my own face,
and embrace myself?
My desire shames me. My desire has separated me from me.
And I know the hell of this earth as if I were a hell of my own.

Translation: 2013, Khaled Mattawa