Walid Abdallah‘s translation of his own poem: Anubis (from Arabic to English)


The Nile has been running here for millions of years

Carrying all the good and removing our fears



 I built the first great civilisation on earth

I eliminated the world thirst and dearth



 I was born a soldier defending my land

Sacrificing my life for a grain of its sand



 Anubis and Horus are forever ready

Protecting Egypt and always steady



 I am a pharaoh and here is my fate

Teaching the world how to love not to hate



 The Nile is my blood that flows in my veins

Look into my face to see Egypt's mounts and plains



 The map of Egypt is carved into the wall of my heart

I taught the world the first writing, music and art



 I am the sleepless eye that protects Egypt from any harms

Who dares to get closer and Egypt is between my arms



 I command every Egyptian to stand upright

To defend our beloved by day and night



 Pharaohs become lions in battlefield

Right and faith are always our shield



 The Nile is life artery in time of thirst

That's why we always put it first



 Egypt always seeks for peace and justice

Always make them her regular practice



 Egypt never seeks for war or conflict

Egypt is the land of love you all expect



 If war is imposed on Egypt and its land

Anubis is carrying his spear in each hand



 Horus is above fluttering his wings

Celebrating the victory he always brings



 Egypt can protect herself against devils of hell

Ask the Hyksos, Tatars and all those who once fell



 Ahmose, Mina and Hatchepsout are always there

Sending to the world all the love, peace and care



 Peace has always been our first call

That's why Egypt will never fall


 


Walid Abdallah is an Egyptian poet and author. He is a visiting professor of English language and literature in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the USA, his poetry includes “Go Ye Moon”, “The Queen of my Heart”, ” Dream” and “My Heart Oasis”. His books include Shout of Silence, Escape to the Realm of Imagination, The Egyptian Lane and Man Domination and Woman Emancipation, Arc and Seam and his co-translations with Andy Fogle of Farouk Goweda’s poetry have previously appeared in Image, RHINO, Reunion: Dallas Review, and Los Angeles Review. These translations won prestigious prizes in the USA like “Cause”, “Egypt’s Grief”, and “Strangers’ Cross”.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s