Things I Didn't Know I Loved*

* If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!
(Shel Silverstein)

March 04, 2006

Khaled Mattawa

Borrowed Tongue

'Maybe I'm a fool
holding two threads,
one black, one white,
waiting for dawn
to tell them apart.
But I'm only practicing
my religion which
I neither borrowed
nor stole.
Maybe I'm a fool
thinking of a better answer
than the transplant patient
who said I'm sorry
someone had to die.

No, I haven't outgrown
my tongue. It's a coat
your mother gives you,
crimson or cobalt blue,
satin inside, the collar
wide enough to cover
your whole neck.
All winter you wear it
then spring comes
but never goes.
That's Arabic to me.
I wear a white shirt now--
thin gray stripes,
top button gone--
and it fits.'

Khaled Mattawa is a poet and translator, Libyan by birth, who emigrated to the US as a teenager.
I attended a reading in Cairo a few years ago, and his poetry is even better read aloud by him. You wouldn't think so, but this is in fact (fact being my opinion) an exceedingly rare thing - it's been my experience that most poets suck at reading their own poetry.

Dive into some more of his work here.

Update: Thanks to rockslinga, you can listen to Khaled's signature Southern crooning here.
'Tis true, slinga, not quite the same as seeing him in person, but as I always say: Pre-Recorded Mattawa is better than No Mattawa At All.

posted by Reformed Cynic # 11:31 PM

Comments:

Khaled is wonderful.

You can hear him read here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1048601

It's not as great as seeing him in person, still...

# posted by

rockslinga : 7:07 PM

Things I Didn't Know I Loved*

March 04, 2006

Khaled Mattawa

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