قصائد الصياد

هاني سامي

(This text was written originally in Arabic. An English translation by the author can be found below)

Published in Shoebox #3

أحبه. نشأت بينهما قصة حب حقيقي. فبعد سنوات الوحدة في الغاب حده، كاد أن يتحول إلى حيوان مفترس. ولكن. لقائه معه أذاب دهون حيوانات برية كثرٍ، إصطادها وأكلها على مر الزمن، فتكومت حول قلبه. إصطاده في يوم بالصدفة، وجده مجروح في المصيدة. ولأنه كان لم يأكل منذ أيام، كان جسمه الجريح نحيف جدًا. أخرجه وضمضه، وحين رأى سامري المجاعة، قلت حيوانات الغاب وندر الغذاء. ولم يتبقى إلا القليل من حيوانات صغيرة الحجم، تحتاج في صيدها لمجهودات مضاعفة لأكثر من شخص واحد. فقرر أن يستثمر فيه، أن يعلمه فنون الصيد ليساعده، وأن يطعمه. أن يعطيه على نصيبه من الطعام، نصف طعامه ليسمنه. وإتضح أن نظرته للأمر كانت ثاقبة. فبمجرد أن خفت جروحه، وإستعاد قوته، أثبت أنه صياد ماهر بالسليقة، وأن سنوات عمره في المدينة لم تقتل صفاته الوراثية الأولى. على العكس، إستخدم ما تعلمه في المدينة من فنون هندسية، لتطوير وإعادة صياغة عملية الصيد البدائية. أبهره. وفي الليل، حول نار الشواء والسهرة، أسمعه الشعر وضاحكه.

كان من أغرب الحيوانات التي صادفها.
ذكره بالذئب الصغير الذي لاقاه منذ سنوات طويلة، فأطعمه ورباه وكبره، فصار أهله وشريكه في الصيد.
وحين مات في يوم، دفنه.

أحبه، وأحب قصائده. حفظها في عقله وفي قلبه، وحين جاء اليوم المعهود، وإنتهت حيوانات الغاب، رنت أصدائها في كل كيانه وهو يأكله. ومن بعد العشاء، جمع عظامه كلها وجلده المسلوخ،
وبجانب عظام الذئب تحت الشجرة
رتل قصائده، دفنه.

Poems of the Hunter

Hani Sami

He loved him.
A real love story occurred between them.
For after all these years of loneliness in the forest, he almost turned into a savage beast. But when he met him, the fats of all the wild animals that he’d hunted down and eaten along the years, and which have cumulated around his heart, have melted.
He hunted him, one of these days, by accident. He found him wounded, in his trap. And because he hadn’t eaten for days, his wounded body was very skinny and bony.
He helped him out, and bound his wounds. And when the forest’s good samaritan saw his naked body, he thought a good thought. For in terrible times like these, on the brink of a famine, the forest animals decreased, and food became scarce. Only the little animals are left, and these need double the effort to catch them. So he decided to invest in him. To teach him the arts of hunting, to help him and to feed him. To give him on top of his share of food, half of his, to fatten him.
And as it were, his views on the matter proved insightful. For as soon as his wounds heeled, and he regained his strength, he demonstrated adept and intrinsic hunting skills. It turned out that his previous urban life did not kill his primary genetic character. On the contrary, he used the technical knowledge he’d learned from the city to reinvent the primitive ways of hunting.
He captivated him. And at night, around the fire and the grill, he recited his poems and laughed with him.

He was the strangest of all the animals he came across.
He reminded him of the wolf cub he found years ago. The one he fed and raised and nurtured. Until it became his family and his partner in the hunt.
And when he died, he buried him.

He loved him, and he loved his poems. He learnt them in his mind and in his heart. And when the prophetic day has come and all the forest animals were done, his words resonated in all his being as he ate him.
And after dinner, he solemnly collected his resting bones and flayed skin,
And under the tree, next to the wolf,
He sang his poems,
And he buried him.