TWO POEMS

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Two Poems

  

Translated from the Persian by Stephen Watts and Ziba Karbassi

  

1. Sigh Poem

 How happy

the candle that

burns itself out

unaware of

the sun.

  2. Tell Love, It’s Time

  My hands in your hands become one hand

My hands in your hands one hand

One by one you’re bending my fingers

Making a fist of my hand

You open me out

Your palm against my palm

a slight pressure

and our fingers

make wings

 

 You say I love you

Look : I lip-shiver you

and you repeat my name

repeat my name

over and over

and we believe

 

My eyes calm down

slowly

slowly

 

In the peace of sleep

My eyes calm down

and eye-kiss your tears

 

Kissing and

drinking

 

We kiss and

we drink

and the sun slowly rhymes

half-rising from

your eyes

 

To say its’

good morning

hello

 

A hand goes toward the curtain

a hand passes through music

A hand picking from the bed-sheets jasmine

A hand takes hold of early light

and throws it to the embrace of night

A hand turns back the night

to kiss the knees of day

 

A hand turns the mirrors toward love

A hand from the neon-lit

or even the street-lit trees :

a hand picks pomegranates

A hand breaks up the ocean wave by wave in my heart

And the foaming of the waves is in the clapping of hands

 

All these hands, these people, this gusting of exploded water

This inspired breathing in the melancholy of summer evenings

And the miracle of the accordion and the harmonium

Are celebrating our kisses : and my hand that

becomes a hand in the hold

of poetry

 

I’m not talking nonsense

My heart is a heart, perhaps

And I’ve become human now

What am I saying ?

Why only perhaps ?

What is perhaps ?

I don’t deny any of this

 

What am I saying ?

My heart is a heart

I’ll shout it now

I’ll tell love

that it’s time …

 

 

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