OSAMA ESBER THE PROLIFIC SYRIAN POET AND TRANSLATOR BECOMING BIG IN EXILE. BRAVO MY FRIEND!

BIODATA OF OSAMA ESBER

Osama Esber is a Syrian poet, short story writer, photographer and translator who presently lives in California. He is an editor in SalonSyria, Jadaliyya’s Arabic section,
and an editor in Status audio magazine. Among his poetry collections are: Screens of History (1994); The Accord of Waves (1995); Repeated Sunrise over Exile (2004);
and Where He Doesn’t Live (2006). His short story collections are entitled The Autobiography of Diamonds (1996); Coffee of the Dead (2000); and Rhythms of a Different
Time. He has translated into Arabic works by Alan Lightman, Richard Ford, Elizabeth Gilbert, Raymond Carver, Michael Ondaatje, Bertrand Russell, Toni


POEMS BY OSAMA ESBER

THE PAST

Some weep about the past
the times when they were happy
and shut the door
of the moment in their faces

They live in the world
as if it is without a sun
without horizons and roads
only contains the city in which
they live and the repeated persons
whom they meet daily

People tend
to can their lives
as they can their food
maybe this is a habit
originated in an old fear
when howling was
the first word of the throat

Many people cling to the past
swim in its waters
eat its food
and repeat its words

forgetting that they pass
on the road of the now and there

MASA LAMPAU

Ada orang menangis mengenang masa lalu
waktu mereka bahagia
dan menutup pintu
momen yang berada di hadapan mereka

Mereka tinggal di dunia lain
seolah-olah ia tanpa mentari
tanpa horizon dan jalan-jalan
dan hanya mengandungi kota mereka
dan berkali bertemu
orang yang sama setiap hari

Manusia sering membungkus diri
seperti membungkus makanan mereka
mungkin ini tabiat
bermula dari ketakutan lama
ketika melalak
merupakan bunyi pertama keluar dari kerongkong mereka

Ramai orang bergayut dengan masa lampau mereka
berenang dalam airnya
makan apa yang dimakan di masa itu
dan mengulangi kata-katanya
lupa bahawa mereka telah melewati jalan-jalan masa lalu
dan kini berada di masa sekarang

QUESTION MARKS

Sometimes I don’t
understand the other
maybe because
I don’t understand myself

And we question marks
at the end of questions?
whose words were deleted
Are we answers?
to familiar questions

Each one of us looks at the other
and forms an idea
the idea becomes an image
and dominate the eyes

we are not ourselves
we are framed images
on the walls of the self and the other

TANDA SOAL

Kadang-kadang aku tak mengerti
orang lain
mungkin kerana
aku tidak memahami diri ku sendiri

Dan kita meletak tanda soal
di akhir pertanyaan?
kata-kata siapakah yang dipadam
adakah kita jawapannya ?
kepada banyak soalan biasa

Setiap kita melihat orang lain
dan mempunyai pendapat tentangnya
idea itu menjadi imej
dan mendominasi pandangan terhadapnya

Kita bukanlah diri kita sebenarnya
Kita adalah imej dalam bingkai gambar
pada dinding diri dan orang lain

MOTHER’S DAY.

My mother told me
Through a telephone call
on her way to the hospital to get heart surgery
I don’t care that you are far
‘ because you are beating in my heart’

Today, on mother’s day
I wish to become in her heart
a beating that does not stop
that travels and penetrates
all rupture in the fabric of our existence
all madness that changed cities
into cemeteries walled with fear
Today, on mother’s day
I wish that a sun of joy
rises from the sorrows of Syrian mothers
and their broken hearts
from the loneliness that nestles in their souls
from the fearful looks in their eyes that cannot bear
the burden of absence
where the fruits of their wombs
were hanging on the trees of days

HARI IBU

Ibu ku berkata
dalam talipon
ketika menuju ke hospital untuk pembedahan jantungnya
‘aku tak peduli engkau jauh dari ku

kerana engkau berdetik setiap masa dalam jantung ku’

Hari ini Hari Ibu
aku ingin menjadi detikan yang tidak berhenti dalam jantungnya
yang merayau dan menerobosi
semua koyakan dalam fabrik kewujudan ku
semua kegilaan yang mengubah kota-kota
menjadi kuburan di dindingi ketakutan

Hari ini Hari Ibu
aku inginkan mentari keriangan
terbit dari kesedihan ibu-ibu Syria
yang hancur luluh
oleh kesepian yang bersarang di hati mereka
juga ketakutan di mata mereka yang tidak tertahan
menanggung kesengsaraan kerana ketiadaan
anak-anak yang dikandung oleh rahim mereka
kini bergayutan di pohon kematian.