This is the tavern...Ali Mehdi

I received an email with a beautiful poem by a late Omani poet, Ali Mehdi. He was a well known poet and a prolific blogger under the pen name of Sleepless in Muscat. The poem below I translated with additional clarification provided by a dear friend. The poem is six stanzas in length, although I only translated the first. The remaining five stanzas, and the poem in its entirety may be read at Diwan al Arab.

حانة

هذه الحانة ُ والليلُ وأصنافُ الهموم
رحلة ٌ تفتحُ لي بابا ً..
لكي أغفو على خدّ النجوم
طائرا ً ما بين أرض ٍ و سماءِ
وليكن تحت حذائي
كلّ ما كانَ ..
فلا شىء مع الوقت يدوم
أيّها النادلُ كأسا ً ..
وليكن للثلج فيها ما يكون
قطعة ٌ تكفي .. أو اجعلها اثنتين ِ
الآنَ ناولني الثريّا
واتركِ الأرضَ لمن يسكنها منذ قرون ..
إنّني أسكنُ وحدي الآنَ أضواءَ (النيون) .



Tavern: Ali Mehdi, Oman


This is the tavern, and the night, and the kinds of concerns;
A journey that opens for me a door…
So that I fall asleep on the cheek of the stars,
Flying between the land and sky.
Let be under my shoe
All that was!...
Nothing lasts with time…
Waiter, a glass!
How many pieces of ice? Doesn’t matter…
A piece it’s enough or make it two!
Now give me the Pleiades,
And leave the Earth to those who have been dwelling on it for centuries…
I now am the one who inhabits alone the light of the stars…