This week, ORbits presents five translations of contemporary poetry in Arabic and French from Oxford Student PEN [1]‘s recent translation workshop. Please see here [2] for further information on the workshop’s origins and aims.
Despair
You came to me that day
On a black moonless night,
Deserted of stars,
With no fireflies or life
To cut when
My steps lost their way behind the village hut.
I, who left myself under the cocoa trees
Where the elephants rot
Oh God in heaven,
An inky night
Collapsed upon me,
And you, oh earth,
Yes, you, oh earth,
You had stopped
Turning.
Enoh Meyomesse