BIO
Souhaib Enjrainy is a Syrian poet, writer and journalist. He was born in Aleppo in 1980. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language and literature. He has published two poetry collections: Circular Drawings (2003) and You Do Not Have To Embrace Grass (2016). He also has published one novel, The bridge (2008). He currently lives with his family in the coastal city of Latakia, where he works as a correspondent.
Nostalgia
… And Beirut is a lesser death, and a lesser love
Take me to Damascus
that I may love – and if I die –
take me to Aleppo
that I may take her walls in my arms bullet by bullet
and sing.
Take me
for in her fire is a shade for the heart
.
A Spike
This is Aleppo
Her districts intone the verse of the forbearing
“This is Aleppo..”
said a child to a spike that caught his dream unawares
Then mumbled he:
Pass by the dreams of our neighbors…
Perhaps thereafter they’ll be transformed into jasmine.
.
Gold
She rises every dawn
As it best befits a princess
“My tassels have grown by five fingers today,” she whispered,
“and their color has become more resplendent
for with the fire gold is refined.”
She reiterates
“At the beginning I was
Come death, let me teach you the secret of life
I am the mother and daughter
And my name is Aleppo.
.
.
Incarnation
This pure breeze befits me not
As of today I will not love terraces
It hurts here that all this space is open yet I can’t see you
My terrace is your eyes
My space your scent;
While you’re away nothing befits me but the damp cellar
where I wedded my papers to the king of dust
and on its wall I drew transparent square frames
where I see none but you
A low ceiling opens upon the break of every dawn
The two angles descend..
They come near.. they smile: Your chest won’t be ripped open O young man
For in your heart there no piece of flesh is there
in which your Lord is not reincarnated
*****
