The prizewinning Egyptian poet Sayed Gouda has translated my poem “The New Nile: Homage to the Egyptian Revolution” into Arabic. It can be found on p. 29 of the current issue of Tanja, the leading Egyptian cultural journal (http://www.aladabia.net/pdf/pdf41.pdf or http://www.aladabia.net/pdf41/). Also on Gouda’s own excellent English-language website, http://www.arabicnadwah.com/englishpoets/turner-nile-En-Ar.htm. Here is the poem in English:
The New Nile
Homage to the Egyptian Revolution
When Egypt fed the world with corn,
It sucked the breast-milk of the Nile;
The Pharaoh’s power, the Roman guile
Drank from that plenteous horn.
The new Nile is a Nile of light,
The world’s bright screens, the cellphone’s glow;
The fertile information-flow
Makes fires in the night.
The new Nile is a Nile of tears,
Of mourning for her children who,
Dying in giving, overthrew
The tyranny of years.
The new Nile flows with liberty,
For today tyrants everywhere
Shake in their boots with doubt and fear
They will be swept to sea.