The king of sorrows
Abdul-Khaliq Keitan
translated by Sadek Mohammed
For him are all sorrows.
He describes them sorrow by sorrow
Then lights candles around them
And smiles.
So we crowned him the king of sorrows.
As for us
We have only our sole sorrow
Which we built
Teardrop by teardrop
We watered it
As mothers suckle their children
So they called us slaves
And christened us
The slaves of the king of sorrows.
Once,
The king whose slaves we are
Looked down at us
And was amazed
At the pure nobility of our sole sorrow.
And, because the king had only common sorrows
His Majesty issued an edict
Confiscating our sole sorrow.
Grave will be the days that we endure:
How can a wretched lot like us,
Slaves of the king of sorrow,
Carry on our lives without our sorrow?
Bereft, we slaves began to chant a hymn:
"Oh bygone days,
The days of our sole sorrow,
How wonderful you were!
Why did you abandon us,
And leave behind
Boring days, days void of sorrows?
And you, O gracious king
Why have you taken from us our sole sorrow?
Take pity on our children- how can they grow up
Without a single sorrow?"
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Baghdad, July 16, 1997
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