Writings 2013

Maria Grech Ganado

“Logħob bejn tnejn”

Hemm drabi li ndaħħal id-dinja f’bozza
sakemm tasal int u b’subgħajk fuq is-swiċċ
titbissimli u titfiha

titfiha tixgħelha titfiha tixgħelha –
sakemm, paqq, tinfaqa’ f’elf biċċa

kull ma ridt nara d-dinja sewwa
kollha kemm hi
u int frixtli baħar ħġieġ
u tlaqtni ħafja.

Karl Schembri

“Il-festa Maltija”

Nofs tużżana mqaret,
qassatat, tużżana rkotta;
ħobż biż-żejt inixxi
bħad-dmugħ dieqi
tal-Madonna;
statwa tal-qaddis merfugħ bl-idejn,
bradella mdiehba,
rasu xxengel ‘l hawn u ‘l hemm
qed tmiss mal-wajer;
briju fit-triqat
qniepen iħabbru
il-ħelsien mill-paniġierku,
omelija vintage patrimonju tal-UNESCO,
żgħażagħ jiġġerrew promiskwi
waqt il-brejk mill-kors ta’ Kana,
tfajjel f’estasi bil-birra ta’ missieru,
murtaletti jisparaw fis-sema jmissu ‘l Alla,
pulizija bil-ġelat u b’abtu mxarrab,
raġel oħxon liebes flokk ta’ taħt imtebba’,
martu eħxen qed tisraqlu ċipsa,
puxċer b’rota mwaħħla f’nofs ta’ triq fi trinka,

Denisa Mirena Piscu

from Omul de unică folosinţă / Disposable People (Galway Print, Ireland, 2009) | Translated from Romanian by Florin Bican

I’m afraid of the sea,
of her mouth,
gaping wide,
of her treacherous mouths
pretending to kiss the soles of your feet
in humility,
yet ready to bite …
The sea’s constantly slobbering
over our feet.

Monique Roffey

from With the Kisses of His Mouth

The night before, for the first time, we’d talked seriously about splitting up. For months there’d been stalemate: rows followed by long silences, followed by rows. We’d even tried counselling together and then he’d started seeing a therapist alone, a bad sign. One by one, in sworn secrecy, I’d confided in my closest girlfriends about our problems. I’d even told my mother what was going on – a very bad sign. Even so, facing the reality of the loss had brought on as onslaught of gut-churning dread and anguish. It was, after all, my fault. I knew this. It was me who’d ruined it all, months back, by admitting, finally, that I was restless; our relationship had been mostly celibate for some time.

Khaled Khalifa

from In Praise of Hatred

It was butterflies that saved Marwa as she waited for Safaa, who never came. She missed Safaa especially on the nights when the death squad fell from the sky on to our plants (which occurred on an almost daily basis), showing off the skull emblems on their chests. They were disturbed by our contempt for them, for attacking a house full of women watched over by a blind man and lying in wait for the wanted men who had evaporated into the sky over the city. They tore up the rose bushes, which were Marwa’s favourite flowers; like a madwoman, she ran from room to room, choked with tears and looking for somewhere slimy to shelter in, like a large snail.

Tsead Bruinja

from “Cellar”

when she hears the hand on the handle behind her
the spring in the cellar door stretches the blue
mouthful of meths splashes back in the plastic
belly of the bottle still not mixed with her spit

her heart falls again her face blushes red
she screws the lid tight and wipes the wrinkled
back of her left hand over her mouth and only
starts to breathe in the gentle eyes of her daughter

Immanuel Mifsud

from “Daħlet Qorrot”

Water has a long story. As does my soul.
It narrates it every day to the silent rocks,
an avalanche of memories falling fast
to mix itself with this patch of damp sand.

Khaled Khalifa

from No Knives in the Kitchen of this City

She showed photos of female protesters who looked like unpicked cotton fruit, bright white under a setting sun. She continued to praise the past, to bring it back to contrast with her humiliated life. She would describe the old sun, and how she longed to smell the old soil after the first rain. She wanted to make us feel everything had really changed, and how miserable we are because we did not live in that period where lettuce was more tender and women were more feminine.

Fahredin Shehu

from “Vertigo”

The avarice of destiny never created the abyss
that shall swallow all dreams and hopes; and

the avarice of wisdom otherwise created Vertigo
in the soil full
of all kinds of manifestations on
the electromagnetic stripe

to be visible as slides of the past moments and
never got a lesson

the spring was in charm
I was in it for a blast of the moment and
this… never made a difference

Mazen Maarouf

from “A Coloured Pin”

My face
may resemble Christ
But
I am not a woodcutter
To make a crucifix
out of my bones
And hang my body
like a dirty laboratory coat.
One day
I will empty my mouth
of smiles
and trample on them
ruthlessly
Just as a child would trample on a terrified breath

Maria Grech Ganado

Minn “Kumpass”

U forsi għandek raġun. Arani, iżda, xorta
ħierġa, riflessjoni għarwiena, bla ma missejtek –
b’subgħajja sodi fuq ir-ramel ta’ madwarek,
nittraċċja mappa ta’ kontinent maħkum.

Angela Bonanno

dormo a filo

Nikola Madžirov

Illejla kwiekeb feġġa.

Għamilt xewqa:jalla jaqgħu

fuq xi ħaġa ratba.

Karl Schembri

Sparawlu lil Bastjan,

għal darba, tnejn,

tlieta, erbgħa, ħamsa,

niffduh aħjar

mill-mediċina tat-tabib

li bis-siringa

daħħallu litri, glalen sħaħ

t’erwieħ

u xoroblu ruħu.

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