Two Poems by Immanuel Mifsud "The Beginning of December" and "Behind Your Door" Translated from the Maltese by Ruth Ward
THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER
I dream
of sleeping in tepid water
as I did many winters ago;
of a hot bath,
of afternoons,
nights
of lovemaking in water,
of sleep,
of shapes emergent from liquid;
of the dark,
of silence,
myself and water:
water and myself
becoming one.
I remember
cities I never visited,
streets I never walked.
I remember bodies I’ve never seen
and people I know only by name
and their name is unknown to me.
I dream of you
waiting for me near school.
I dream of other things
I cannot mention.
Blessed the winter.
Blessed the water
and the dark.
Blessed the breath, the moan.
Blessed the whispered shout.
Blessed the silent song I forgot.
Blessed the rain waiting to fall.
Blessed my mother’s soul twenty years since her passage.
Blessed I am
that I know all
because I know that I know nothing.
FIL-BIDU TA’ DIĊEMBRU
Noħlom
li rieqed fl-ilma fietel
kif għamilt ħafna xtiewi ilu;
bil-banju jaħraq,
bil-waranosinhar,
bl-iljieli ninħabbu ġol-ilma
bl-irqad
bil-forom mil-likwidu
bid-dlam
bil-kwiet
jien u l-ilma
l-ilma u jien
ħaġa waħda.
Niftakar
fi bliet li qatt ma żort,
triqat li qatt ma mxejt.
Niftakar iġsma li qatt ma rajt
u nies li naf biss b’isimihom
u isimhom ma nafux.
Noħlom bik
tistennieni ħdejn l-iskola.
Noħlom ħwejjeġ oħra
li nsemmihom ma nistax.
Imbierka din ix-xitwa.
Ikun imbierek l-ilma
u d-dlam.
Imbierka n-nifs, it-tnehida.
Imbierka l-għajta minn taħt l-ilsien.
Imbierka l-għanja siekta illi nsejt.
Imbierka x-xita tistenna ħa tinżel.
Imbierka ruħ ommi għoxrin sena minn mewtha.
Imbierek jien
li naf kollox
għax naf li ma naf xejn.
******
BEHIND YOUR DOOR
While you talk to me from behind your door,
asking me to leave so we die distant;
your breath lost after this long walk,
after this climb steep, uphill;
after the tears, a mourning sky masking the sobbing …
While you’re telling me that all is over —
so much so there’s snow instead of flowers,
and silence presses against the frozen trees —
while you are telling me the prayers for the dead …
I will, again,
feel the whiteness of sheets that once held us;
pillows where we rested poems
once lived on sun-filled mornings;
the weight of your body, urgent upon me;
fragrant desire in your smiling eyes — closing,
in your moist mouth, in the magic of your vagina.
I feel the fire in all the steps we took,
in the little books we read to each other.
You talk to me from behind your door,
asking me to leave … But how can I?
I wish you’d open like they do in novels;
I wish we’d take flight toward long ago —
hide, uncover, and devour each other.
You ask me to leave. … I can do no other.
MINN WARA BIEBEK
Int u tkellimni minn wara biebek,
titlobni nitlaq ’l hemm ħa mmutu mbiegħda,
nifsek maqtugħ minħabba dit-triq twila,
minħabba din it-telgħa wieqfa ħafna,
minħabba d-dmugħ, l-ilfiq taħt sema vistu …
Int u tgħidli li kollox qed jispiċċa –
sa nieżla l-borra flok spuntaw il-fjuri,
sa s-sikta tross mas-siġar iffriżati –
int u tgħidli t-talba tal-mejtin …
nerġa’
nħoss il-bjuda tal-lożor li għannquna,
l-imħaded fejn serraħna l-poeżiji
li għexna f’dawk l-għodwiet ta’ xmejxa tisreġ;
inħoss it-toqol tiegħek jagħfas fuqi,
il-ħeġġa tfuħ f’għajnejk jitbissmu mbexxqa,
f’ħalqek niedi, u s-seħer tal-vaġina.
Inħoss in-nar fil-passi li għamilna,
fil-kotba żgħar li qrajna lil xulxin.
Int u tkellimni minn wara biebek,
titlobni nitlaq ’l hemm. Imma kif nista’?
Nixtieq tiftaħ, kif jagħmlu fir-rumanzi.
Nixtieq li nerġgħu mmorru ħarba twila,
ninħbew, ninkixfu, nieklu lil xulxin.
Titlobni nitlaq ’l hemm. U hekk se nagħmel.
First published in the Maltese by Klabb Kotba Maltin in My Dear Body (2023).
Author: Immanuel Mifsud is a five-time national literary award winner and a European Union Prize for Literature recipient. Novelist, poet, playwright, and translator, Mifsud is a founding member and current president of PEN Malta. He lectures in literary theory and Maltese literature at the University of Malta. His research focuses on the body and sexuality in literature, as well as the field of psychogeography.
Translator: Ruth Ward’s creative collaborations center on the Mediterranean, particularly 
Malta and Spain. Her translations of poetry and fiction have recently appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Columbia Journal, The Los Angeles Review, Modern Poetry in Translation (London), The Common, Raritan, and Southword (Cork, Ireland). She is a member of PEN America.
