BY: KHAMIS QALAM
TRANSLATED BY: MUNA YAHYA
AL BATTASHI
Like my days, I walk meaninglessly
Unashamed of the next to come
Nor regret the past
Ruin is my memory
Vampire, I am
Descendant of the gods of war
The loss
The torment
Graves are my home
Under their sand is my throne
Skulls and bones are my medals
Locust is my army
Unleashing it into the greenness of days
Ravens are my messengers
My legacy is ash and revenge
In the fi re, in the cyclone
In the delicious grapes
In the iron
And in everything
My tyranny lurks
Penetrating the layers of time
I snatch whoever I desire
With my claws
And I never sleep
A sky couldn’t bear its meaning
So it came to me
To plant in the hearts of mothers
The heavy qualms of night
Or to harvest the dreams’ misfortune
From their children
And here I come to you
You’re my arrows’ prey
And I
I’m the bow of destiny
From me, there’s no escape
Alone, I extorted
With my tyranny
A handful of soil
From this cowardly earth
To be fl esh
Upon its shoulders
Man is its canine
Oh wearers of shrouds
How proud I am that
I deluded you from your hunger
Your ignorance
Your fear
Your grief
I walked you through the gate of doom
Thus, seek for yourselves
A fake immortality
In your departing names and things
With me, darkness is your destiny
Now, here I kneel, crying
Alone, Before God
“O God Almighty
I have completed my mission
But
All I those I made absent on earth
They are present here
Their eyes towards me, hyenas
O God Almighty
They have returned
Here I’m slaughtered
Between the hell of sinfulness and Paradise
Those I made absent are present here
And I
I’m the absence
I’m the A B S E N C E
