Gihan Omar

Gihan Omar

Gihan Omar (Egypt)

 

B.A., Philosophy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, Philosophy Department.

 

Published works:

أن تسير خلف المرآة   (Walking Behind the Mirror,) July 2013; published by Dar al-Ain;

ديوان – قبل أن نكره باولو كويلهو  (Before We Hate Paulo Coelho)

Published by Sharqyat – Egypt 2007

ديوان – أقدام خفيفة (Light feet)

Published by Sharqyat – Egypt  2004

The French Version of “Before We Hate Paulo Coelho,” Poem ديوان قبل أن نكره باولو كويلهو, L`Harmattan, Paris, 2011;

Several poems have been translated into English, French, Bosnian ,Romanian , Korean and German in different periodicals and journals, 2007- 2011;

 

Events

  • Festival International orient-occident, Poetry Nights 2015
  • Writing Residency in South Korea, Windflower Centre, May-June 2015
  • Festival of Khan Alfunoun, Amman, Jordan 2014
  • Lodeve Festival voix de la méditerranée ,France 2012
  • Festival of Arab Creative Women, Benghazi, December 2012;
  • Writing Residency in South Korea, Toji Cultural Center, September- November 2012.
  • Participated in Sarajevo Poetry Days, May 2010,
  • Participated in Seoul, South Korea, Writing Residency Program, June- December 2009, Korea Literature Translation Institute,
  • Participated in Malaga Festival, Syria, supervising a workshop with children of Malaga village on how the writing and photography are related, the name of workshop was “Our Feelings,” while the main issue of writing and photographing was: “My friend how do you see me?”, August 2010.
  • Participated in “Amman Theoretical Days” Poem in Theater, Jordan, March-April, 2008.
  • The “Arab Contemporary Poem” Festival, Damascus, Syria, November- December 2008

Her poetry profound and deep revealing a tortured self in an agonizing time.

Omar tries hard to create her own  images and poetic style. Though she adopts the prose as medium for  writing, her poems tend to use the internal music which makes her poetry so musical and spiritual she also prefers the confessional tone in her poetry that is why we feel the sincerity of her poems”    Baha Abd-elmegeed

 

Writing Residency in South Korea, Toji Cultural Center, September- November 2012

  • Participated in Seoul, South Korea, Writing Residency Program, June- December 2009, Korea Literature Translation Institute,

(Walking Behind the Mirror,) July 2013; published by Dar al-Ain;

(Before We Hate Paulo Coelho  ,Published by Sharqyat – Egypt 2007

(Light feet)  Published by Sharqyat – Egypt  2004

The French Version of “Before We Hate Paulo Coelho,” Poem L`Harmattan, Paris, 2011;

 

 

I AM NOT A WHOLE GARDEN

 

Like a flower

I let the bees rest on my face.

I feel their nimble feet

Crowding my cheek.

I stop,

Avoid any command

To my body:

Only celebrate that moment

In silence.

I watch it

Crawling down to my neck.

They sting me;

With kindness they suck my nectar.

I hide behind their violent desires.

I like my eyes now

Their movements confirm my existence

And allow me to see more

Of their comings…longings;

The boldest of them

Slide into a narrower passage

Between my breasts.

 

At night,

I sneak to the kitchen:

Open a jar of honey

With hidden pride,

Fill a teaspoon

And started to taste myself.

Gihan Omar

Arapçadan İngilizceye Çeviren: Mandy McClure

 

 

 

SEMIOTICS

 

Do not wear the white dress

It makes you seem pure,

even though it reveals your weakness,

 

Neither the red one

It makes you charming

though it exposes your desires.

 

Nor the yellow one

Because when you wear it,

You seem like a piece of sun

it also assures your loneliness

 

Wear the black

Only black dress,

Wear it all the time

The black graces your skin

So it should seem like a sky praying for a moon

 

The black which makes me feel

Like I am already dead

And you are in a morning time,

Mixing your tears with coffee beans

 

Lighting the candles in your closet

While your colored dresses are dancing,

Celebrating my departure.

Gihan Omar

Arapçadan İngilizceye Çeviren: Mandy McClure

 

 

GROUP SEX (ORGY)

 

He shuts his eyes

Imagining her a prettier woman,

she closes her eyes

Imagining him a man truly in love with her

They were four on the bed..

He

She

The pretty woman

And the man who loves her,

 

All at once, they knot the edges of the colored sheet

Each edge is held up by one single hand

May be they need it as a parachute

On the moment they land from heaven

And because the crimes of imagination

Are many

The forgotten and planned ones

They can fly away and soar

Therefore they don’t refer to the matter ever again.

Gihan Omar

Arapçadan İngilizceye Çeviren: Mandy McClure