the compassion anthology
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  • Archives
    • Spring 2019, Letter from the Editor
    • Winter 2018 Letter from the Editor
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    • Exhibits/Fundraisers 2015
    • Poetry, 2019 >
      • Robbie Gamble
      • Robert Okaji
      • Nicholas Samaras
      • Gabriella Brand
      • Sarah Wernsing
      • Jen Karetnick
      • Cindy Veach
      • Seres Jaime Magana
    • Fiction, 2019 >
      • Ruth Mukwana
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      • Olivia Kate Cerrone
      • Rebecca Keller
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      • Review of the movie GIFT
      • Jalina Mhyana
      • Stephen Dau
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      • Olive Paige
    • Art, 2019 >
      • Krisztina Asztalos
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      • Laura Gurton
    • Winter 2018 Art >
      • Dawid Planeta
      • Liliana Washburn
      • Ellen Halloran
    • Winter 2018 Fiction >
      • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
      • Herman Melville
    • Winter 2018 Essays >
      • Nikki Hodgson
      • Ciara Hall
      • Sara Roizen
      • Review of Claudine Nash's The Wild Essential
    • Winter 2018 Poetry >
      • Parker Anthony
      • Crystal Condakes Karlberg
      • Julia Lisella
      • Cynthia Atkins
      • Claudine Nash
    • Essays Summer 2017 >
      • Interview with Gail Entrekin
      • Patricia Reis
      • John Nelson
      • Mary Baures
      • Monette Bebow-Reinhard
      • M.J. Iuppa
    • Fiction Summer 2017 >
      • Jean Ryan
      • Daniel Hudon
      • Ray Keifetz
      • Anne Elliott
      • C.S. Malerich
      • Sascha Morrell
    • Art Summer 2017 >
      • Sara Roizen
      • Jill Slaymaker
      • John Mark Jennings
      • Janel Houton
      • Brandon Gorski
      • Tara White
      • Nancy Dudley
      • Elisabetta Lucchi
    • Poetry Summer 2017 >
      • Megan Merchant
      • Joey Gould
      • Claudine Nash
      • M.R. Smith
      • Kim Aubrey
      • Vivian Wagner
    • Winter 2017 Poetry >
      • Dan King
      • Kathleen Byron
      • Sam Bresnahan
      • Olivia McCormack
      • Danny Romanovitz
      • Kyle Quinn
    • Winter 2017 Art >
      • Elliott Grinnell
      • Olivia McCormack
      • Brendan Brown
      • Lauren Waisnor
    • Winter 2017 Essays >
      • Kathleen Byron
      • Eddie Marshall
      • Sofia Colvin
      • Ishita Pandey
      • Mohsin Tunio
    • Summer 2016 Fiction >
      • Jyotsna Sreenivasan
    • Summer 2016 Art The Women Artists and Writers Exhibit
    • Summer 2016 Poetry >
      • Colleen Michaels
      • Jennifer Markell
      • Tara Masih
      • Holly Guran
      • Heather Nelson
      • Bahareh Amidi
      • Alison Stone
      • Julia Travers
      • Amy Jo Trier-Walker
    • Summer 2016 Essays >
      • Olivia Kate Cerrone
      • Katelyn Gilbert
      • Kim-Marie Walker
      • Bahareh Amidi
    • Winter 2016 Fiction >
      • Blue Vinyl, Green Vinyl
      • The Cresting Water
    • Winter 2016 Art >
      • San Giovanni D'Asso Landscape Paintings
      • It's All About the River
      • Jellyfish Sculptural Drawings
    • Winter 2016 Poetry >
      • Poems from Songs in the Storm
    • Winter 2016 Essays >
      • The Gleaners
      • The Aliveness Project
      • Named
    • Summer 2015 Fiction >
      • The Cloak
      • Sanctuary
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      • Environmental Art
      • Compassion in the Midst of Violence
      • Burn Myself Completely for Him and Souls
      • Eye of Oneness
      • Stepping Forward
    • Summer 2015 Poetry >
      • Poem With a Question From Neruda and INDICTMENT
      • The Humans
      • Afghan Boy and other poems
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      • Transference and other poems
    • Summer 2015 Essays >
      • The Ineffable Aspects of Forgiveness
      • He Was Better Than I’ll Ever Be
      • A Voice in the Desert
    • Winter 2015 Fiction >
      • White Heron
      • Freeing a Little of the Madness
    • Winter 2015 Art >
      • Cascade of Care and Life
      • Sentience
      • A Paternal Instant
      • Aurora, Paloma, and the Melangolo Tree
      • Seated Pose
      • Antigone's Map
      • Ladder
    • Winter 2015 Poetry >
      • Dissolution of the Soviet Union
      • Nicknames
      • Stopped at a Light,
      • Why mate for life? Red crown crane
      • The Prisoner
      • Stigmata
      • "Oh don't," she said. "It's cold."
      • Convene
    • Winter 2015 Essays >
      • The Forgiveness Project
      • A Stranger on a Subway
      • A Journey to Compassion
      • The Question of Compassion
      • Reflections on a Childhood Deforested
      • Click, Click, Click
I Sleep in My Inkwell and Wave to the Distant
by Zakia el-Marmouke
translated by Jennifer Jean and Amir Al-Azraki
 
 
To those who enter the fire with boats,
who touch heaven with kites,
who stuff roof holes with clouds,
 
who hide under beds
whenever the road stutters
in the throat of footfalls entering fog--
 
of footfalls that never return
from the checkpoint
which only sends back bodies;
 
to those who resort to the inkwell
when speech narrows,
who plant nails in their blood
 
whenever the wall slouches--
more and more nails
so the lover’s image does not fade
 
into the traffic of silence;
to those who collect their own ashes
whenever their pillow is dry,
 
whenever there’s absence,
who aren’t tired of waving
to loves in the distance
 
whenever maps are locked;
to those who venture into meadows
before the waters flow,
 
who keep the keys
whenever they know the doors
were stolen, who leave their crutch
 
on the threshold of the unknown
whenever life leaves them behind;
to those who know themselves
 
through their wounds
whenever the war sleeps
in their eyes
 
while reassuring the subjects of war;
to all those, I say: the forest begins
with a tree; let
 
your left hand—which keeps the throne--
shake your right hand. Maybe
dreams hatch between them.
 
Translated from the Arabic
 
 
​
Zakia el-Marmouke teaches French literature, has published five poetry collections, and is the director of Rabitat Al-Ebdaa’ min Ajl Assalam (Association of Creativity for Peace). She resides in Morocco. “I Sleep in My Inkwell and Wave to the Distant”
was originally published in the May 2020 issue of Poetry Magazine and is reprinted with permission from the translators. 
 
Jennifer Jean is the author of The Fool (Big Table) and of Object Lessons--which is forthcoming from Lily Review Books in 2021. Her awards include a “Her Story Is” Residency—where she worked with Iraqi women artists in Dubai; and, an Ambassador for Peace Award for her activism in the arts. Her poems and co-translations appear in: Poetry, Rattle, Waxwing, Crab Creek, DMQ, The Common, and more. Jennifer is the translations editor for Talking Writing Magazine.
 
Amir Al-Azraki is a playwright, assistant professor of Arabic language and culture at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and the coeditor and cotranslator of Contemporary Plays from Iraq (Bloomsbury, 2017).
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