Healing Poems From Tunisia

At a poetry festival in Tunis

I got a headache everyday

after hearing so many eulogical poems

Suddenly it crossed my mind

I forgot my "ointment" poems at home

For a Tunisian poet

whose name was Mushif Al-Muzghany

who had with him some healing poems

( "Ointment" poems seem to have gone universal)

One of them reads:

There was a goat

sneaking into a parliament building,

bleating

And, suddenly, the whole structure

was trembled by a choir of shouts, saying:

"Yessss!"

Suddenly I felt my headache disappear

It seemed to me

A Tunisian poem was so healing

(This poem was actually written in Baghdad)

-- A Mustofa Bisri

Translated from Ohoiby TIS

Ayip Rosidi's Aquarium

I saw the fishes swimming:

How happy is life without dilemma

And how I wished to become a fish

From inside the aquarium the fishes

jealously stared at me:

Perhaps they wanted to be human

Like me, who, every Sunday,

goes fishing

-- Mustofa Bisri

Translated from Ohoi by TIS

Two Pundits

There are two experts

Who are equally bright

One of them said it is daytime, not night

His reasons are very right

The other believes otherwise

His reasons are acceptable, too

Lucky there is still a sun and a moon

Otherwise I would be confused alone

-- A Mustofa Bisri

Translated from Ohoi by TIS