{"id":12732,"date":"2015-01-14T08:19:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T12:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12732"},"modified":"2015-01-13T09:20:29","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T13:20:29","slug":"imprisoned-poet-ashraf-fayadhs-frida-kahlos-mustache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/imprisoned-poet-ashraf-fayadhs-frida-kahlos-mustache\/","title":{"rendered":"Imprisoned Poet Ashraf Fayadh\u2019s \u2018Frida Kahlo\u2019s Mustache’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n

via Arab Literature (in English)<\/strong> by mlynxquale<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh has now <\/i>gone more than a year<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0without trial\u00a0in Saudi prisons on the\u00a0ostensible charge that he’s been\u00a0“insulting the Godly self” through his poetry, as \"ashraf\"well as “having long hair”:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Poet and activist Mona Kareem has translated one of Fayadh’s poems, posted online on Laghoo<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frida Kahlo’s Mustache<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Ashraf Fayadh<\/i><\/a><\/span>, trans. Mona Kareem<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I will ignore the smell of mud, and the need to reprimand the rain, and the burn that has long since settled in my chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0am looking for fitting consolation for my situation, which doesn\u2019t allow me to interpret your lips however I wish<\/span><\/p>\n

Or to brush away the drops of mist from your reddish petals<\/span><\/p>\n

Or to ratchet down the level of obsession that overtakes me when I realize you are not beside me at the moment<\/span><\/p>\n

And will not be\u2026 When I am forced to justify my position to the punishing silence of the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just act as if the earth is silent, as we see it from a distance, and that everything that\u2019s happened between us was not more than a bad joke that\u2019s gone too far!<\/span><\/p>\n

#<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think of the days I spent without you?<\/span><\/p>\n

About the words that evaporated so quickly from my heavy pain?<\/span><\/p>\n

About the knots that were deposited in my chest like dried algae?<\/span><\/p>\n

I forgot to tell you that I\u2019ve grown used to your absence (technically speaking)<\/span><\/p>\n

And that wishes lose their way to your desires<\/span><\/p>\n

And my memory is being eroded.<\/span><\/p>\n

That I am still chasing the light, not to see, but because darkness is scary\u2026even if we get used to it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Would my apology be enough? For everything that has happened while I tried to make up good excuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

#<\/span><\/p>\n

For every time jealousy was aroused in my chest,<\/span><\/p>\n

For every time despair ruined a new day of my dark days,<\/span><\/p>\n

For every time I said Justice would get menstrual cramps and Love was a feeble-minded man in the autumn of his age with erectile dysfunction!<\/span><\/p>\n

#<\/span><\/p>\n

I will have to sidestep my memory<\/span><\/p>\n

And claim that I sleep well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got to tear out the questions<\/span><\/p>\n

That have come looking for a rationale, to get convincing answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The questions that, for very personal reasons, have come after the fall of the usual punctuation.<\/span><\/p>\n

#<\/span><\/p>\n

Let the mirror explain how beautiful you are!<\/span><\/p>\n

Remove your dusty pile of words, breathe deeply.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember how much I loved you, and how the whole thing turned into an electric shock that could have caused a huge fire\u2026in an empty warehouse!<\/span><\/p>\n

For the last year, poet\u00a0<\/i>Ashraf Fayadh<\/i><\/b> has been detained\u00a0in the Saudi city of Abha without clear legal charges beyond having\u00a0\u201cideas that do not suit the Saudi society,\u201d based on a reader\u2019s\u00a0complaint about\u00a0Fayadh\u2019s 2008 poetry collection, <\/i>Instructions Within.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Translator<\/i> Mona Kareem<\/i><\/b>\u00a0is a stateless poet and writer from Kuwait. She published two poetry collections in Arabic and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Comparative Literature department in Binghamton University.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via Arab Literature (in English) by mlynxquale Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh has now gone more than a year\u00a0without trial\u00a0in Saudi prisons on the\u00a0ostensible charge that he’s been\u00a0“insulting the Godly self” through his poetry, as...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,91,103],"tags":[1620],"class_list":["post-12732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mashreq","category-poetry","category-translation","tag-ashraf-fayadh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12735,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732\/revisions\/12735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}