I am leaving, waiting for you

 Romantic poem

I am leaving, waiting for you: poem’s name

(أنا راحل في انتظارك)

Poet’s name: Abdel Moneim Ramadan

(عبد المنعم رمضان)

Date of writing the poem:  1 august 1983

 →  listen to the poem

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الخلاء يقربني منكما أيها العاشقان 

Oh, dear lovers! the emptiness brings me closer to you.

تفر اليمامة أمام عيني 

The dove flies away in front of my eyes

لم يفر النخيل

The palm tree does not run away

وأذكر ساعة كنت أرى جسدك العذب 

And I remember an hour when I saw your sweet body

كان المدى يتحرر من قفص الكون 

The horizon was freed from the cage of the universe

كنت الملاك الختامي 

You were the last angel

وأنت العداء الذي يختفي في المودة 

And you were the hostility that disappeared in love 

أنت القرابين بيني وبين الآله 

You are the offerings between me and God

وبيني وبين الخصوم 

And between me and the enemies

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قاسميني الدم للآن

Share your blood with me for now

أو قاسميني الفراق

Or share the departure

الموت صار اتكاءة جسمي على الرب 

  The death becomes the leaning of my body to God 

أنزفه حين أصعد نحوك 

I bleed it when I rise to you

ها أنا ذا أستعيد البشارة 

I bring the glad tidings back

بشارة حبك

The glad tidings of your love

****

An explanation of this piece from the arabic poems :

This poem expresses a strong sense of love. Expressions like: “You are the offerings between me and god” or “Share your blood with me for now” succeeded in expressing the strong emotions that Mr. yousry had. We can’t find a lot of new ideas here. The reason behind that is that love is a repetitive subject on the table of the poets. But there are strong poetic images: “The horizon was freed from the cage of the universe”. Here we can find this link between love and freedom. it's a short, full of life, impressive poem. 

The poet uses some of uncommon expressions in the conservative Arabic mind: “And I remember an hour when I saw your sweet body”, cause talking about these things is socially forbidden or unlikable, the Arabic mindset sees morality only in the decency, so we can say that yousry succeeded in putting his literature out of the box of the suffocated traditions.

Yousry Khamis, the writer of this poem, was a famous Egyptian poet, dramatist, and translator. He was born on 5 February, and was died on 16 November in 2022; he was a doctor in the Cairo University. He had a great academic career. Also, he created an iconic cartoonish character called “bogy and tamtam”. His achievements remain in the heart of millions of the Arabic children...