Ziba Karbaasi
Sigh Poems
1
Your passing through me
is the passage of fire
through straw:
You pass and
I . . . ow-awe!2
Hush!
Do not talk to me.
I dare not even breathe:
the hook of love
sits in ambush
for the red fish
of my heart!3
Where are you, poetry
where are your blue stitches ?
The heart of the world
has been torn apart!4
Days
drop off
one after the other.Alas! We
do not know that
the roof of our lives
is made from paper.7
Tell the world
to lock shut
the doors of its hell:
the paradise of your embrace
is opened to me.10
You are a long way off
from me:
Reality tells me so.
I wish you were
a dream!13
No!
My hands
never got warm,
never.
Even
in the heart of the tallest flames,
my hands burned,
turned to ashes,
but they
never got warm!14
The air full of sounds,
the sounds full of air.You shouted :
“freedom”!
And the bird
flying from your roof-top
was wounded.16
My patience
is a thick book
whose final pages
have been chewed up
by
termites!17
The doors open and close.
The train is now full, now
emptied.The doors open and close.
The train is half-empty.The doors open and close.
The train is empty.A woman
is still
waiting
in darkness.[London, Winter 1992-Summer 1995]
Translated by Esmail Khoi
Page(s) 177-179
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