Original: (Al Saddiq Al Raddi)

قيلولة

قَبْرٌ مُشْتَرَكْ
جُثَّةٌ واحدةٌ محترقةْ
مثلما تحلمينْ

أُعِدُّ لَكِ الشَّايَ
من ضَنْكِ المائدةْ
تطبخينَ العناصرَ مخلوطةً في الرّوَاق

نَتَّقِي
أَنْ نكونَ بعيدَيْنِ عَنَّا
نَتَّقِي
أَنْ نَصِيرَ رماد!.

A shared tomb
A burnt corpse
As you dream

I prepare the tea for you
From the roughness of my hand
You cook and mix things calmly

We long
To escape ourselves
We long
To become ashes!

A shared tomb
a burnt corpse
as you dream

I make tea for you
from what little we have
with your graceful preparations

We dread
being apart
We long
to become ashes

What happens across the versions of the poem?

What do you think about the translations?

Compare them to Landers.

How would you revise the poem?

(exercise: Rula Baalbaki)

(source: http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/siesta)