Letters to the Moon

LARA ALTHUKAIR

Photography courtesy of Farida Rady (@farida.archives)

i.

Salut Lune,

I don’t mean to burden you, but the letters I sent you have been left unresponded; I'm starting to question if you’re actually there.

ii.

Moon, can I stay in your arms for a bit longer? You live in a sky so big, one that holds stars, constellations, planets, and solar systems, so why isn’t it big enough to hold me?

iii.

Moon, I’ve dedicated all of myself to you. My words spoke of your glory, my art captured your essence, so what happens at sunrise? When will you return to me whole? When will I return to you whole?

iv.

Moon, what happened to my sentences? Why have my periods been replaced with commas and ولكن’s? What about the tender thoughts that swam through me? And what happened to all the خيرة’s you promised to work out? Have they forgotten about me? Why does it feel like I’m motionless in a fast-paced world? Am I running out of time? Moon? Are you listening?

v.

Moon, tu m’as toujours dit “Il y a un champ où l’on pourrait encore courir / Des étoiles à n’en plus finir / Et ton ombre au bout de l’avenue / Elle s’efface.” Et Moon, je pense que je devrais courir. You told me to hold on to the edges of your hollow craters, but time is slipping away, and so are my hands.

vi.

Goodbye Moon, I am falling.

vii.

I promise to send you postcards of my unlived adventures, I promise to turn فيروز songs into lullabies for my unborn daughters, I promise to dance with the cosmos every now and then.

iix.

I know I can’t, I know I shouldn’t, but

Mom,

Can I stay in your arms for a bit longer?

Translation

Moon, you always told me

“There is a field where one could still run to

With eternal stars

And your shadow at the end of the avenue

Will diminish”

And Moon, I think I should run

You told me to hold on to the edges of your hollow craters,

But time is slipping away, and so are my hands

(Author’s note: The French bit in quotations is an excerpt from Pierre Reverdy's poem "Inn").

Lara AlThukair writes her words from the heart of Riyadh. Find her on Instagram: @platoveggies or Twitter: @laraherseIf.