New Year Poem by Nazik Al-Malaika

New Year

Rating: 5.0


New Year, don't come to our homes, for we are wanderers
from a ghost-world, denied by man.
Night flees from us, fate has deserted us
We live as wandering spirits
with no memory
no dreams, no longings, no hopes.
The horizons of our eyes have grown ashen
the gray of a still lake,
like our silent brows,
pulseless, heatless,
denuded of poetry.
We live not knowing life.

New Year, move on. There is the path
to lead your footsteps.
Ours are veins of hard reed,
and we know not of sadness.
We wish to be dead, and refused by the graves.
We wish to write history by the years
If only we knew what it is to be bound to a place
If only snow could bring us winter
to wrap our faces in darkness
If only memory, or hope, or regret
could one day block our country from its path
If only we feared madness
If only our lives could be disturbed by travel
or shock,
or the sadness of an impossible love.
If only we could die like other people.

Translated from the Arabic by Rebecca Carol Johnson

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Deepak Kumar Pattanayak 19 December 2017

So touching, moving, heartbreaking and stirring it is and so stunningly expressed the things prevalent then...... simply outstanding.......thanks for sharing

1 0 Reply
Anil Kumar Panda 19 December 2017

A song spilled deep from the heart. Flow is amazing. Enjoyed.

1 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 20 December 2017

TWO , she was a professor and excellently educated, BUT she did the task of a good poetess and she KNOWS what is going on in tha Arabic society, so she regarded this as her DUTY to create this poem. Yes she WAS that smart. We do never jump into conclusions, but PLEASE READ HER POEM as it ought to be read. THANK YOU.

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 20 December 2017

ONE To STEVE W this person is no longer on PoemHunter, and he wrote a comment but this Steve W is not to be reached for further conversations/explanations: so I am saying this to you, Steve W, that I read her BIO,

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Steve W 19 December 2017

Too many people jump to conclusions on here. The poet was a university professor, not some downtrodden person. Famous and successful. Read the bio.

0 0 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 19 December 2017

Your footsteps! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

1 1 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 19 December 2017

In greatest difference with our women's world, the poetess lived and loved in a traditional male's society, where women have no rights. Horrible must this be. Many women died a premature death, I reckon. Saddest poem I ever read about not being free as a soul must be. More tears are flown mine side while reading these words, but most beautifully worded, saddest deep inside. CONGRATULATIONS on This MODERN Poem of The DAY. Most beautifully worded.

2 1 Reply
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