Seven Evenings

I.

Looking for unused faces

In the piles of destroyed masks

To conceal

– When I meet you –

Some sadness used to cover

The continent of my heart.

2.

Being tortured by some songs

I threw my ears beyond the noisy silence.

To hear the same repeated news.

3.

Before the thousand closed doors

Of the palace of sorrow in my heart

I stand,

Without a key.

4.

I tie the stone of silence to my head

And fall,

In the sea of sleep,

Like an anchor splitting

The ocean’s breast!

5.

Rising from my head,

The memory of death grows,

To fall in my inkpot.

It makes the passed away people

scattering as letters do

in the wind’s hands.

Those are the crossing illusions

In my heart,

I shall never feel calm,

Till my heart puts its anchor

In the skin of darkness.

6.

I tell my daughter a story

Before she sleeps,

But we are always attacked by night

Before the prince of our tale

Meets the lady with the crystal shoe.

7.

Shut the window of the day

in the face of last night’s dreams.

To cry behind the curtains

of my forgotten days.

Bio-data

Ashraf Aboul-Yazid ( 1963):   The Silk Road Literature Series, Editor-in-Chief , since 2016, Asia Journalist Association, President, since 2016. His Main Awards: Manhae Grand Prize in Literature | The Republic of Korea | 2014, Arab Journalism Award in Culture | UAE | 2015, The Gold Medal in LIFFT Eurasian Literary Festival, Istanbul, 2021, The Medal of Esteemed Patron of Arts, PAWA, Ibadan, 2022, Medal of Honor, International Commonwealth of Peoples’ Diplomacy (МСНД), Kazakhstan, 2022 and Sawiris Cultural Award. Children Literature, 2023. He has published 44 books of poetry, novels, travel literature and children literature.