English

A horse on the coin

By in English, short story, translation

A horse on the coin

By: Salem Ojali* It was when a truck roared passed me on the road, that I realised where I was, it shook the place and drove away leaving a silent desolate road behind. I realised that I was always like this; anticipating the past and future, driving in a small old car, on a road I didn’t recognise, bewildered in front of the soldiers at the check points, astonished by the vastness of the horizon. I stopped the car after sunset on a high place off the road, tired from the scene of a barren featureless desert all day long. […]

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Shaltami in English

By in English, poetry, Shaltami, translation

Shaltami in English

By: Mohamed Shaltami* Writings on cell door 6 My comrades… Will these stones grow grass in dawn? Will the wishes bloom on the walls of death, and the seeds? Will the songs resound through the echo? And will the memories scent the stove? Herein since a month since a year since a century, a wall stood up and a prison and a doomed generation. Will the sad spring sun, rise to wake our demised dreams? Will the nightingales and larks recite tales of the city which God once committed suicide on its door thus, painting all the houses and bushes […]

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Enter the darkness…

By in English, tate, video

Tate Modern‘s latest installation in the interior space of the Turbine Hall, known also as The Unilever Series, is a giant steel box called (How It Is) by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka, it stands on two metres metal columns with a thirteen metres in height and thirty metres in length. Visitors can walk underneath it, listening to the echoing sound of footsteps on steel above, or enter via a ramp into its pitch-black interior. I leave you with this short video that tries to illustrate the experience of entering the darkness and listening to the metallic echoes.

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Introduction to the concept of (Silly Optimism)

By in English

Introduction to the concept of (Silly Optimism)

There is always a tomorrow * Evil can be conquered with a smile * Never let go of your dreams * Who said that love doesn’t exist, I eat every day from you lips * Even if they burn you on the stake your ashes will blend with the soil and feed the trees * She might be ugly and wicked but you still need her milk * Night might be dark and mysterious but think about the moon and all the stars that will follow you forever * They might shout at you, kick your arse, slap you, even […]

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Wet Sleeves

By in Al-Asfar, English, short story, translation

Wet Sleeves

By: Mohamed Al Asfar* They met every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday morning in front of the bookshop, chatting about the busy life, most of them old men even time got fed up counting their age, their faces reveal the marks of senility from limpness, dryness and tremor, some of them snuffed and chewed tobacco while the others smoked cigarettes while exhaling with difficulty. Haj Buzaid sneezed while he stared at the closed door of the bookshop and said: “The wretched is late… may be one of the bags fell on him!” Haj Awadh blows his words through his wide toothless […]

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all the sky all the sea…

By in English, prose

all the sky all the sea…

To Grant… Wind blows off the white cliffs, rain rolling behind, and a sun will follow. The sounds of thunder and tumbling waves, eating part of tin and chalk, land’s end begins tonight, nothing is left from a lonely summer, the smell of baked pastry hit the heart, but still something is left of him on the sea. The image shines on the mountain towards the old town, all of them were here, Romans, Huns, and Greeks before, then came us, or maybe we were here when it was all sea and green, she holds him in her arms and […]

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Poems on a tree (3)

By in English, poetry

Poems on a tree (3)

To S. I wish.. you wish.. we wish.. high on the hill.. drifting in the void the sun sleeping on your cheeks a river breeze kissing your hair I wish.. walk me down the narrow road touching your swollen heart caressing the skin with nettle stings You wish.. blowing our fear with the setting no blackberries to waste for another day their purple stain burns the chest We wish.. A wave.. a smile.. a promise.. Ciao

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Day dreams on Twitter

By in English, twitter

Day dreams on Twitter

While lots of Libyan bloggers and friends are rediscovering Facebook and enjoying their new technological toy before a new inventions springs up on the Internet, I have been spending more time micro-blogging on Twitter, finding it easy to write what ever on my mind, especially with the easy access through different platforms. I am finding it much easier for me to express my thoughts and dreams without being bothered and getting most of my news headlines and articles by following lots of newspapers and news organisations on twitter. A few months ago I wrote down some of my silly and […]

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I, the fake

By in English, poetry

I, the fake

Fake all there is in the face Not a word is true or pure All there is… A mask of wisdom and confidence I, the weak I, the impostor I, the lair I, the confused I, the fake prophet of deceit All there is… an image… a vision… blurred every day. Weaker is the light inside the heart No faith No god can save the soul Disintegrating under a summer rain O, I am tired No place to rest the corpse in this waste. Don’t pity me Don’t loath me Pity yourself; throw your soul in the abyss of shame […]

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Poems on a tree (2)

By in English, poetry

Poems on a tree (2)

A smile.. wide, vast, infinite.. I can see the clear sky above the mountain.. A smile with the smell of thyme and olives the touch of clay the breathe of fresh spring. I lose all once more repeat my hymns forget to draw it on my face Wider than white sea a small touch of desert sand on the cheeks brave, free, full of life a smile to hold closer to the eye

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