The Journey of Alwan the Porter

Abdulmonaam Al-Koraishi

Translated by Abbas Kadhim & David Sullivan

1.

Alwan the Porter returned

from a fatiguing journey,

a ship wreck floating on water

Here comes Hercules!"

proclaimed the bartender.

2.

And Alwan the Porter, despite his prodigious power,

dragged through his hard days

with compact tranquility.

He opened treasures of his sorrow,

repeating:

I'm a porter, from a dynasty of porters.

My grandfather was a solid wall, never gave in to an axe.

He bequeathed my father an oxen's firmness,

and my father planted me like a rock."

3.

He told me once:

"When my father went to his eternal paradise

I prepared myself

with all my power, physical and spiritual.

And, since I was the familys only horse,

I decided to tie my life with a thick rope.

I spent my days inside endless fires

that burned me

and left me the last one to be rescued.

And, when my fires grew larger,

I became firmer.

For, you see, I am a purebred horse

and a porter, from an all-porter dynasty."

4.

The town stares at Alwan the porter with aggressive eyes

because his road is wrapped in deep-rooted sorrow.

Here is the sorrow of Sumer

flowing from reed flutes

onto the flowering world.

Here is his deep voice

and steel backbone--

his hands are the scale of his revenue,

which earned him his friend's envy.

And always, despite his everlasting sorrow,

he never withholds his pure smile

that knocks at the soul's doors

when the bartender plays the role of clown.

His gardens open up

and the scent of fresh laughter spreads

over his companions.

5.

Here he is, Alwan the Porter,

the world of unrehearsed joy

stops him short, prevents him from engaging fires,

or gathering their ashes,

to be better prepared

for feeding seven mouths

in a nest inherited from his father.

He's a purebred horse

and a porter from a line of kind-hearted men.

6.

In the Eid they found Alwan the Porter

on the side-walk

with a bullet in his head.

He left behind seven mouths, that chirped.

What a purebred horse

and a great man

from the line of Shirukeen the Great!

7.

Alwan the Porter

This poem cries for him,

the bartender cries for him / the patrons in the caf cry for him / the Eid cries for him / Porters cry for him / the nest he inherited from his father cries for him / the town cries for him / the depot merchants cry for him / the streets cry for him / all the seven directions cry for him / and the sky cries for him.

*** *** ***

* Abdulmonaam Al-Koraishi is an Iraqi poet from Najaf. In this poem, he presents the resilience of the Iraqi, whose life has been shaped by endless wars, oppression, and a cascade of disappointments. In its Arabic original it is a poem of the finest standards. We hope to have faithfully translated it.