The Fishes’ Message

  I went to the pond

  Hoping to see the reflection of my loneliness in the water

  There was no water in the pond.

  The fishes were saying:

  "“It is not the trees’ fault at all.

  It was a sultry summer noon,

  The bright son of water, sat by the pond’s edge

  And the eagle of the sun dived down and lifted him up & up in the air.

  To hell with our not reaching any oxygen from water.

  And the glitter has left our scales all together.

  Instead, that big light,

  The reflection of that red carnation in the water

  Whose heart, if the wind was blowing, would beat behind the layers of neglect,

  Was our eyes.

  It was a window to the confession of paradise.

  If you see God in the palpitations of the garden,

  Make an effort and tell him that the fishes'’ pond is dry."”

  The wind was going to visit the plane tree,

  I was going to visit God.

By Sohrab sepehri

Translated by Mahvash Shahegh