The Wind Will
Take Us
In my small night,
ah
the wind has a date with the leaves of the trees
in my small night there is agony of destruction
listen
do you hear the darkness blowing?
I look upon this bliss as a stranger
I am addicted to my despair.
listen do you hear the darkness blowing?
something is passing in the night
the moon is restless and red
and over this rooftop
where crumbling is a constant fear
clouds, like a procession of mourners
seem to be waiting for the moment of rain.
a moment
and then nothing
night shudders beyond this window
and the earth winds to a halt
beyond this window
something unknown is watching you and me.
O green from head to foot
place your hands like a burning memory
in my loving hands
give your lips to the caresses
of my loving lips
like the warm perception of being
the wind will take us
the wind will take us.
Forugh Farrokhzad
Translated by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak
The Persian Book Review VOLUME III, NO 12 Page 1337
TOP
LOVE SONG
The night is painted by your dream
Your perfume fills my lungs to extreme
You are a feast for my eyes!
All shapes of woe you belie
As the body of earth is washed by rain
From my soul you cleanse all stain!
In my burning body you are a turning gyre
In the shade of my eyelashes you are a blazing fire.
You are more verdant than a wheat field!
More fruit than golden boughs you yield!
To the suns you open the gate
To counteract dark doubt’s spate
With you there is nothing to fear
But the pain of joyful tear
This sad heart of mine and profuse light?
This din of life in the abyss of blight?
The glance in your eyes is my field
And with it my eyes are sealed
Before this I had no other image
Or I would not but you envisage
The pain of love is a dark pain
Going and demeaning oneself in vain
Learning against people with black sight
Defiling oneself with the filth of spite
Finding in caresses venom of wile
Finding villainy in friend’s smile
Handing gold coins to the marauding band
Getting lost in the midst of the bazaar land
With my soul united you will be
From grave you will raise me
Like a star on wings decked with gold
You come from a land untold.
You alleviate sorrow’s pang
Flooding my body with embrace’s tang
You are a stream flowing onto my dry breast
My bed of my veins with your water is blest
Within a world which on darkness does feed
With every step you take I proceed
Underneath my skin you go!
There like blood you flow
Burning my tresses with a fondling hand
Flushing my checks with an urging demand
You are a stranger to my gown
An acquaintance with my body’s lawn
You are a shining sun that never dies
A sun that rises in Southern skies
You are fresher than first light
Fresher than spring, a luster sight
This is no longer love: this is pride
A chandelier that in silence and darkness died
When love did my heart entice
I was filled with a sense of sacrifice
This is no longer me, this is no longer me
My life with my ego amounted to a null degree
My lips your kisses prize
Your lips are the temple of my eyes
In me your stir a great rhapsody
Your curves are an attire on my body
O how I crave to sprout
And my joy with sorrow shout
O how I wish to rise
And my eyes with tears baptize
This forlorn heart of mine and incense perfume?
The music of harp and lyre in a prayer room?
This void and these flights?
These songs and these silent nights?
Your glance is a wondrous lullaby
Cradling restless babes thereby
Your breath is a transcendental breeze
Washing off me tremors of unease
Finding in my morrows a place to sleep
Permeating my world deep and deep
In me the passion for poetry you inspire
Over my lays you cast instant fire
You kindled my passionate desire
Thus setting my poems afire.
Forugh Farrokhzad, Another Birth, Selected Poems
Translated by Ismali Salami Zanbankadeh Publication Modern Persian
Poetry Page 20 ISBN: 964-6117-36-8
Another
Birth
