“But the blooming words declare the storm with bravery”: Five 21st-century Iranian women poets
Posted: March 31, 2012 Filed under: A FEW FAVOURITES / UNA MUESTRA DE FAVORITOS, English, Farsi / Persian, Fereshteh Sari, Five 21st-century Iranian women poets, Nasrin Behjati, Nasrin Ranjbar Irani, Pegah Ahmadi, Sylvana Salmanpour Comments Off on “But the blooming words declare the storm with bravery”: Five 21st-century Iranian women poets
“A Rush” by Sylvana Salmanpour
With soft words
I draw a childhood dream
on a nascent memory.
I write in peace
so that the silky dream of the notebook
will not tear apart.
But the blooming words declare
the storm with bravery.
“Those Days” by Fereshteh Sari
Those days
Poetry
was my room
and wherever I felt unsafe
I gravitated into its eternal sanctuary.
These days
there aren’t any rooms
that can harbour me against the crowd
and behind every window
inside and outside every room
a two-faced clown sneers.
“The Stone I become” by Nasrin Ranjbar Irani
I do not grow or nurture
the stone, I become
the stone
I mask the spring’s mouth
I do not cry or distress others
The Rock, I become
The Rock
that intrudes into the peaceful pond
Neither do I laugh nor do I want others to laugh
The stone, I become
the stone and I shatter the mirrors.
To poetry
I vow, to joy, to dew,
that I will be a stone again
an undeniable slash across the brow
But before these all
I want to be
the glass
the flame
the mirror
Ah! A crystal ball
and the spring rain…
Once and Only Once
To be in love, in love, in love
in this lifetime,
Once and Only Once!
“Neither a Satellite nor the Internet” by Pegah Ahmadi
A poem ambles across the wall
forever and a day
In the heart of the kitchen it spins,
spins on the porch
And when it returns
It utters:
Neither a Satellite nor the Internet
I am not the universal Media
Nothing but a new leaf on this arid plant
Or the thought of a rendezvous
Makes me rejoice
I am only a poem to brush your hair
A poem to pass through you!
“A Day without You” by Nasrin Behjati
And I commenced my day
Without you or your name
I spilled you out of my tea
Out of my breakfast
From the kitchen
And I didn’t nurture the plants…
so that I could witness your rage,
Your name from autumn
The autumn from the field
And the field from the poems, I
removed
I heaved you out of my memories and
the seasons and I walked to the mirror
To cut short the locks you loved so,
Alas! In the mirror a sunflower reflected
Your unkind frame,
Outlined my face forevermore,
I had become you!
_____
The poems featured here from five Iranian women poets were translated
from Persian (Farsi) into English by Sheema Kalbasi.
Visit her literary site: http://www.sheemakalbasi.com
Zócalo Poets 