Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad

Author:Forough Farrokhzad
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811232388
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:01+00:00

Gift

هدیه Hedyeh

I speak from the limit of night

I speak from the limit of darkness

and of the limit of night

If you come to my house, O kind one, bring me a lamp

and a tiny opening through which

I might look at the crowd in the happy street

*

Green Illusion

وهم سبز Vahm-e Sabz

All day I cried in the mirror

Spring had entrusted my window

to the green illusion of the trees

My body no longer fit the cocoon of my loneliness

and the stink of my paper crown

had contaminated the air of that sunless realm

◊ ◊

I couldn’t, I couldn’t anymore

The sounds of the alleyway, the sound of birds

the sound of tennis balls bouncing away

and the fleeting uproar of children

and the dance of balloons

rising to the end of their string stems

like soap bubbles

and the wind, the wind that panted as if it was far down

in the deepest dark moments of sex—

all these assaulted the silent fortress-wall of my confidence

and, through old fissures, called out to my heart by name

All day my gaze

was fixed on the eyes of my life

on those two anxious fearful eyes

that fled from my fixed stare

and like liars

sought refuge in the safe sanctuary of their lids

◊ ◊

Which summit? Which heights?

Don’t all these winding roads

converge and end

in that cold sucking mouth?

O words that deceive simple people

O denial of the body’s desires, what did you give me?

If I had placed a rose in my hair

wouldn’t it have been more alluring

than this fraud, this paper crown

that stinks on the top of my head?

◊ ◊

How the spirit of the wild captured me

and the magic of the moon made me stray from the faith of the flock!

How my unfilled heart swelled

and no other half made it whole!

How I stood and saw

the earth under my two feet give way

and how the heat of my lover’s body

never found its way to my body, waiting in vain!

Which summit? Which heights?

Shelter me O confused lamps

O bright doubting houses

where, in the arms of fragrant smoke

clean laundry swings on sunny rooftops

Shelter me O simple complete women

whose delicate fingertips trace, through the skin

the thrilling movement of the fetus

and in whose blouse-folds the air

is always mixed with the scent of fresh milk

Which summit? Which heights?

Shelter me O fire-filled hearths—O lucky horseshoes—

and O song of blackened copper kitchen-pots

and O depressing hum of the sewing machine

and O ongoing battle between carpets and brooms

Shelter me O all greedy loves

whose painful desire for perpetuity adorns the bed of your conquests

with magic water

and drops of fresh blood

◊ ◊

All day, all day

cast off, cast off, like a corpse on the water

I was heading toward the most terrifying rocks

toward the deepest caverns of the sea

and the most carnivorous fish

and my delicate vertebrae

sensing death, flinched with pain

I couldn’t, I couldn’t any longer

The sound of my footsteps arose from the road’s refusal

and my despair expanded beyond the patience of my soul

and that spring, that green illusion

that passed by the shutters, said to my heart:

“Look

you never moved forward

you sank.”

*

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.