Shirin and Salt Man by Nilofar Shidmehr

Author:Nilofar Shidmehr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oolichan Books
Published: 2014-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

I was neither concerned about my destiny nor about

being married. My focus was on a name:

if he were a Khosro, I thought, I would give

his proposal a second thought.

My friends worried about the number of suitors

each got. I was second to none among them.

Every day someone approached my mother,

asking for an appointment

to come over to our house

to propose to me.

Some had never seen me.

My being in demand was due

to my mother’s popularity.

In the neighborhood, in town, she was known

for fundraising for the poor and other

charitable works during the Iran-Iraq War.

She sat behind a sewing machine

and turned our basement into a workshop,

making uniforms for the soldiers.

Shamsi sat to the left of my mother,

wishing one of the women in there

would want her for his son. I sat to the right,

listening to her panting, which sounded

like an odd melody for the desolate

rhythm of sewing machines.

There were two sags under Shamsi’s eyes—

like two nets. Her eyes, black as two spiders,

sat in their centres—the spiders,

as hardworking as Shamsi, expanded their nets every day.

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