بائع السوس قصيدة وترجمة محمد محمود أحمد

[صالح المدني]

بائع السوس

The licorice seller

Written and translated by

Mohammad Mahmud Ahmad

بائع ُ السوس ِ أعتٌقِل
عذبوه ...سجنوه ....أي ذنب قد فعل!
همُه كسبُ لقمة ِ عيش ٍ
ناسيا ماذا يجري أو ما قد حصل
قالوا له فجرتَ جسرا ً
ضربوه عذبوه حتى قال نعم
قال لهم أطفالي جياعُ
زادوه ضربا ً فقال
هيّا خذوها وخلوّ السبيل فاليوم ُعيد
ما دخلكم أنتم بشأني لست ألا بائعاً زهيد
أكابد لقمة َ عيشي بعَناء ٍوشقاء
أن ولّت القربة ُمني ذهب الرزقُ جُفاء
أفحصوها علّكم تجدوا فيها المفيد
أنها قربة ُجلدٍ ليس ألا, أفي داخلها حديد!!
أضعُ الماءَ القراحَ فيها وأبتغي يوما ً جديد
يلاقي الظمآن حاجته ُ ويقل هاتِ وزد
* * *
دخل الزنزانة َ وحيدا ً
دون زاد دون ماء
عصبوا عينيه ونقلوه
الله ُ وحده ُ يدري أين يدفنوه
قال له الشرطي لا تبالي
قد يُصيبك َ بعضُ الشلل
قال لهم قربتي عندكم أمانة
ونقودي وساعة ُ جيبي أمانة
عشرينَ شهرا أختفي
لاقى ما لاقاه من ضرب وعذاب
أين قِربته ُ يا ترى؟؟
قالوا رائحة ُالبارودِ فيها وسنفحصُها من جديد
جردوه من ثيابه وفحصوا حتى منخريه
قالوا في القربةِ وضعتَ القنابل
فحَكموه عشرين أخرى وأطلقوه

The licorice seller

The licorice seller was arrested
Has been kicked and punished.
He wondered! What sin he commits is!
His concern is only to find a bit of bread.
He is careless to look out his world.
They said to him, "you dynamited the bridge"!
Still they kicked him until he "said yes"
He said bitterly; my sons are hungry
They kicked him again until…
He replied, "Take my licorice skin and let me go away"
We are happy since it is a festival's day.
What do you want from me just I am a poor seller?
I endure the sufferance of misery life everyday.
If the licorice's skin is seized, what shall I do again?
Please check it again perhaps you find useful thing.
A skin of leather it is! What do you think?
I put the licorice' soak on it and ask Allah His favour.
Each thirsty would request this soaked drink eagerly.
Even if I pour to him a full cup, he requests repeatedly.
* * *
They put him in a dark cell singly
Without food….without water
A while after they blindfold his eyes
And delivering him in another way
God is only who knows where they burry him.
The police officer says to him scornfully
Don't be worry at all
Maybe you will get some paralyses!
He requested if they could keep his skin as trust deposit.
Wristwatch… and some of money
The all prosperities he owns.
Twenty moths he was disappeared
He met unendurable agonies, and sufferance.
If only he knew! Where is his licorice's skin?
They said to him, it has a smell of gunpowder.
And we must check it again.
They removed his clothes and even looked inside his nose.
Saying to him, "you had put the explosives inside it."
They arrested him for twenty months over and set free.