This poem is taken from PN Review 130, Volume 26 Number 2, November - December 1999.

Poems (translated from the Arabic by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi and Gabriel Levin)

Taha Muhammad Ali

Warning

Lovers of hunting,
and beginners seeking your prey:
Don't aim your rifles
at my happiness,
which isn't worth
the price of the bullet
(you'd waste on it).
What seems to you
so nimble and fine,
like a fawn,
and flees
every which way,
like a partridge,
isn't happiness.
Trust me:
my happiness bears
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