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 …