A body grants flirtation room for delights.
There is no pulse unless we are there
We caress the desire in the paradise of night and we fill the jar with silver.
A body is capable of dueling and attacking
There is no despair to hold back the victorious attack,
and nothing but the sand can read its own message.
There we spell out:
Tobacco rubs ashes on the wound,
a bow of muscles impatiens the blood.

BASSAM K FRANGIEH

is Professor of Arabic at Yale University, USA, and au thor of several books, including Alien atien and fhr Palestinian Novel (Arabic). He has translated leading Arab Poets and novelists into English.