Episode 33: First Quarantine with Abdelhalim Hafez

Connor and Jack explore the fantastic poem "First Quarantine With Abdelhalim Hafez" by Safia Elhillo. Connor fixates on the tensions between the figurative and literal and Jack goes deep on his and the poem's obsessions, and also pulls off a Werner Herzog impression.

Check out the poem below, or at this link. Read more about Safia Elhillo here.

Listen to Safia Elhillo talk about what Abdelhalim Hafez and his music mean to her, here.

Listen to the full Abdelhalim Hafez song here.

Read the referenced interview with Elhillo here.

First Quarantine With Abdelhalim Hafez
by Safia Elhillo

& maybe it is too easy to blame
mortality on our capacity for love
the slow death that is putting
your breath in another's body
trusting your name in another mouth
but maybe it is smaller     say water
sweat yes     tears yes     but also
the nile as a vein between our two home
countries     washing the red dust
from my feet   yes     cooling the sear
of a blood-orange sun   yes     but also killing you
the way only foul water can kill

& i do know how it is
to be young & always
sick   at the mercy of
something meant
to immortalize us

the slow finish is in my heart
its syrup trickle
& i don't mean love
i mean my wet   crooked 
actual heart