Traces of an Unknown Woman

by Al-Saddiq al-Raddi

1

The watchman cleaves to his lantern
The knight clings to the neck of his horse
My name was
passed down from mother to 
daughter – 
like the
songs sung by caravans to bolster their 
courage
My name is the gleam of a golden scarab

The tribe is both sustenance and a finely-wrought 
necklace
The journey is like a tattoo
Survival is balanced on the point of a spear

2

Each millennium a woman journeyed along Darb Al 
Arbaien 1
Richly attired as she travelled the road back and 
forth
She may not return
Each millennium she starts out once more 

What remains: a ladle that keeps its own counsel
A clay pot punctured by millennia 
A necklace of shells from distant seas, of shells 
gleaned from a far-off riverbed – pottery
stained with the patina of copper – the blown egg of 
an ostrich, etc, etc
What remains: revelation

3

The fount of wisdom is pierced by
the point of a dagger

… … …

An epoch of atrocities witnessed by the diggers of 
graves. Temples razed to the ground. Tales told by
men whose fingers fire flames. Violated women 
branded by poverty, scorned with shame. Then 
came the discourse of separation and selection. 
Then came camp followers, wielding division, 
corrupt catalogues of sins straddled on camels, 
difference decreed by the naked eye. Numberless
tongues were ripped out to be trammelled under the 
hooves of horses. 

The end of a tribe is a tribe.

By Al-Saddiq al-Raddi, translated by Rashid El Sheikh and Atef Alshaer (with Sarah Maguire)

https://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/traces-of-an-unknown-woman