THESE WARS WITH WINTER
NIGHTS
©
Farouk Asvat
These wars with winter nights
Are over now,
Beside your supple body
Enveloping me
In a determined embrace
And yet
We loose so many moons
Denying each other,
Uncertain,
Uncertainties heaped upon uncertainties
Like sand rising upon sand
I should not let you go
I whisper to the empty room
Banging my fist against
The cruel whims of fate
That led an army of passion
Against her inarticulate silence
On those cold summer nights
So now,
She too is away
So far away
From where I knew her once
Like a petal falling in the night
Like thunder frightening me
In the comfort of the afternoon
Grey with rain
I recall you coming,
Wave upon wave,
Wiping out memory
Leaving fresh sand
And tiny breathing spaces for life
Like she came,
Wave upon wave,
Building an architecture
From kaleidoscopes of colour
Misty nights and burning flesh,
Nights that calmed down
In her troubled embrace
So come
And go
To whatever darkness you dwell in
To whatever mysteries trouble you,
Or fill my uncertain hours
With more uncertainty,
Your deep-throat'd laughter
Filling the world with masks,
My life with emptiness
So go
And come
And I will fill your troubled soul
With the certainty of my embrace:
Come,
And I will fill your brittle vase
With dewy breaths of flowers
Tied in happy ribbons
Jingling like trees
Full of blossoms
Celebrating life
Even though I know
You too will leave,
Leaving me dangling
Like a wounded bird
Shattered against the tree
©
farouk asvat
composed: 1985 [Johannesburg, South Africa
under apartheid]
[] Acknowledgements:
These Wars
With Winter Nights was
previously published in:
A Celebration Of Flames (donker,
p53, 1987);
A
Celebration of Flames (Heller Fund, UC Berkeley, California, p45, 1988);
Matatu 5(3) (Göttingen, Germany,
p11, 1989);
Deze Oorlogen Bij Winternacht: Dutch translation by Irene Scheltes
(1989);
A Celebration Of Flames (piquant publications, p66,
2007);
www.faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com
(26.06.2012);
A Celebration Of Flames (kindle, 2014);
A Celebration Of Flames (amazon paperback, p65, 2014).
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
the NOVEL Sadness In The House Of Love by Farouk Asvat
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the NOVEL The Gathering Of The Storm by Farouk
Asvat
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the anthology I Dream In Long Sentences by Farouk
Asvat
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the anthology The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs by Farouk
Asvat
is now available on amazon: paperback @ $10 &
kindle @ only $5
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the anthology A Celebration Of Flames by Farouk Asvat
is now available on amazon: paperback @ $10 &
kindle @ only $5
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the anthology The Time Of Our Lives by Farouk Asvat
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the anthology Bra Frooks … by Farouk
Asvat
is now available on amazon: paperback @ $7.50 &
kindle @ only $5
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the collection of
literary essays Weapons of Words by Farouk
Asvat
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kindle @ only $5
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© farouk asvat. All rights reserved.
Farouk
Asvat asserts his moral right to be
identified as the author of this work.
No part of this publication may
be reproduced by any means whatsoever, or transmitted in any form or any means whatsoever,
mechanical or electronic, including recording, printing, photocopying, or via
any computerised means or media, including the internet. This publication shall also not be stored in
a retrieval system. And the writing
shall not be sold, lent, hired, resold or circulated in any form or binding or
cover other than that in which it is published,
without the prior permission of the author in writing.
Permission
to publish or reproduce the writings in any format can be obtained from the
author.
Reproduction
of this work without permission, except for scholarly & nonprofit purposes,
is
liable to a payment of 10, 000 ren men bi or US$ 1,500.
farouk asvat can be contacted at: farouk.asvat@gmail.com
[] please check out my blogs @:
weapons of words: www.faroukasvat-viewpoint.blogspot.com
piquante: www.faroukasvat-piquant.blogspot.com
books by farouk asvat: www.faroukasvat-books.blogspot.com
[] also link up on:
google+: www.google.com/+faroukasvat
linkedin: www.linkedin.com/farouk-asvat
facebook: www.facebook.com/faroukasvat
youtube: www.youtube.com/c/faroukasvat
twitter: www.twitter.com/faroukasvat
_______________________________________________________
DEZE OORLOGEN
BIJ WINTERNACHT
Dutch translation by © Irene Scheltes
Deze oorlogen bij winternacht
Zijn nu voorbij,
Naast je soepel lichaam
Dat zich rond mij wikkelt
In een stevige omhelzing
En toch,
We verliezen zovele manen
Elkander loochenend,
Onzeker
Onzekerheden opgehoopt
Zoals zand bovenop zand;
Ik had je niet moeten laten gaan
Fluister ik tot de lege kamer
Mijn vuisten ballend tegen
De wrede grillen
van het lot
Dat een
leger van hartstocht leidde
Tegen haar
sprakeloos zwijgen
In die
zomernachten vol kou
Dus nu,
Is ook zij
verdwenen,
Zo ver hiervandaan
Vanwaar ik haar ooit kende
Als
een bloemblad vallend in de nacht
Als onweer
dat me angst aanjoeg
In de weelde van de middag
Grij
s van de regen
Ik roep je komst op
Golf-na-golf,
Veeg herinnering uit
Laat vers zand achter
En minieme adempauzes om te leven
Zoals zij kwam,
Golf-na-golf,
Een bouwwerk
scheppend
Van
kaleidoscopen
Nevelige
nachten en brandend vlees
Nachten die
tot kalmte kwamen
In haar
omhelzing
Dus kom
En ga nu
In wat voor
duisternis je ook woont
Wat voor mysteries je
ook mogen kwellen
Of vul mijn onzekere
uren
Met meer onzekerheid
Je lach diep in je
keel
Die de wereld met
maskers vult
Mijn leven met leegte
Ga dus
En kom,
En ik vul je gekwelde ziel
Met de zekerheid van mijn omhelzing:
Kom, en ik zal je broze vaas vullen
Met bedauwde adem van
bloemen
Met vrolijke linten gebonden
Rinkelend als bomen
Vol bloesem
Loftuiging op het leven
Zelfs a1 weet
ik dat
Ook jij mij zult verlaten
Verlaten terwijl ik bengel
Als een gevende vogel
Te pletter gevlogen tegen de boom
Dutch
translation by kind permission of © Irene Scheltes
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
the NOVEL Sadness In The House Of Love by Farouk Asvat
is now available on amazon: paperback @ $15 &
kindle @ only $5
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
#love #literature #fiction #novel #poetry
#southafrica #apartheid #books #classics
#faroukasvat #weapons of words #comparative
literature #literary criticism
#a celebration of flames #these wars with winter nights
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