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Poetry

Your Body Journeyed Off

By Duna Ghali
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins
In this poem, Duna Ghali navigates personal effects and carry-on luggage along physical and spiritual journeys.

Each time I’ve approached it, my personal effects have scattered.

The smell of a journey clings to your body.
Each time I’ve approached you, I’ve packed my personal effects.

Your body becomes my carry-on bag.
I enter it
To keep from touching the earth.

Your body—
Keep your eyes fixed on mine—
Doesn’t tire of tempting me
To commit errors,
And finally I quit the earth’s domain.

 

From Hadiqa bi-‘Itr Rajul (Garden Perfumed by a Man&rdquo) (Damascus: Al Mada Publishing Company, 2008). © 2022 by Duna Ghali. All rights reserved.

English

Each time I’ve approached it, my personal effects have scattered.

The smell of a journey clings to your body.
Each time I’ve approached you, I’ve packed my personal effects.

Your body becomes my carry-on bag.
I enter it
To keep from touching the earth.

Your body—
Keep your eyes fixed on mine—
Doesn’t tire of tempting me
To commit errors,
And finally I quit the earth’s domain.

 

From Hadiqa bi-‘Itr Rajul (Garden Perfumed by a Man&rdquo) (Damascus: Al Mada Publishing Company, 2008). © 2022 by Duna Ghali. All rights reserved.

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