The Coffer of Vows
I am two dreams shorter, for my feet have worn down the streets of the city I traversed…
Do not anticipate my final ode to you
I dropped it in the scared coffer of vows after a fervent prayer
Perchance, it descends into the hand of a destitute daughter of the poor
And perhaps she happens to be of the dream weavers
So long she forgets an old loaf
Or a humble dwelling of straw and mud
And without a prior acquaintance, her mother would bring forth my name and pray for our destined reunion...
In the here and now, I tread footlessly
Perched on desires and whims...
I discern no path closer to you except that of God…
And no route closer to God
Than the radiant smile of a penurious kin, akin to hope
Be not worried
In God’s will, no error shall transpire between you and her
Not for any conceivable reason…
Rather, because He laments for a realm that unites a vagabond poet and a famished beauty…
Translated from the Arabic by Amal Zayat.
Mahdi Mansour is a Lebanese poet, physicist and educator based in Paris. He writes Arabic poetry across classical, free-verse and prose forms, and sees poetry and physics as two languages for the same question: how we understand the world and put our wonder at it into words.
He has published eight poetry collections, and his poems have been sung by Faia Younan, Ahmad Houeili and others; «Ya Qatily» won the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal International Prize for Arabic Poetry (2024). He has read at the Festival d'Avignon, Étonnants Voyageurs in Saint-Malo, the Babylon International Festival and the Jerash Festival, and his TED talk in Arabic explores why physics and poetry are so alike.