2 Poems of Sohrab Sepehri
Light, Flower, Water
There is no cloud
There is no wind
I sit next to the pool
The goldfish, the light, flower, water.
The immaculate tree of life.
My mother is picking mint.
Bread, mint, cheese, spotless sky, wet oleanders.
The salvation is not far: within flowers in the yard.
The light is caressing water in my vase.
The scale is inviting the sun to the earth.
Everything is hidden behind a smile.
And the wall of time has tear disclosing my face.
There are things that I don’t know,
And things that I know:
I fly up to the peak: I am full of feather and wing.
I gaze at the sight in the dark: I am full of torch.
I am full of light and sand,
Full of flowers and trees
Full of lane, full of bridge, full of river and wave.
I am full of the weight of a leaf in the pond
How empty I feel inside.
The poem Roushani, Man, Gol, Ab was first published in the anthologyHajm-e Sabz (The Green Heap) 1967, Tehran.
A Fine Lonely Night
Listen!
The furthermost bird of the world sings
The night is neat, straight and wide.
The moon wispers
To the ears of the flowers,
To the ears of the twigs.
In front of the stairs
Whitin the abundance of the breeze
A torch in my hand
I stand.
Listen!
The lanes is calling your steps
For your eyes not be the ornament of dark
Wash your eyes, wear your shoes
and come.
Come until the moon’s nightly finger warns.
Come until the time sits on your side.
Come until the night’s scent absorbs
the mass of your limbs.
Listen!
I know,
There will be a wise
who will tell you then:
“The best instant is the night
you look into your eyes
and they are wet,
wet from the incidence of love.”
The poem Shab-e Tanha-yie Khoob was first published in the anthology Hajm-e Sabz (The Green Shape) 1967, Tehran.
Translation: Maryam Dilmaghani
Other Links:
Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam Nishapuri (part 5)
Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam Nishapuri (part 6)
Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam Nishapuri (part 7)
