كلمة قصيرة

A Brief Word

The poems I have gathered in this collection, and in another to be published after it, are part of what I wrote over the last two years, 2019–2020.

When I wrote these poems, it never crossed my mind that I would publish them in a collection, for they came quickly and spontaneously. Indeed, I thought them closer to casual chat than to the poetic creation a poet takes pride in. Yet for some reason I do not know, they had the good fortune to be the first to appear in print. What I do know for certain is that the one for whom they were written will be glad to hold a printed collection in which every poem is her lover and poet speaking to her. And that may be reason enough.

Since I began writing poetry forty years ago, I have been gathering poems into collections without publishing them. I wrote many long poems on all manner of themes, and because I moved so often from one country to another, many of them were lost; but what remains is enough to make up a number of collections. I had little desire to publish, in general; but with the launch of this collection I shall prepare those poems and collections for publication, once I have gathered them from their scattered scraps of paper.

The Author

English translation prepared by artificial intelligence and reviewed against the Arabic for accuracy of meaning and rhetoric.