Two Poems by Sohrab Sepehri
translated by Masoud Farahmandfar
from Persian
from Issue #5, Fall 2014 - Spring 2015

Address

"Where is the friend's house?" The rider asked in the twilight. Heaven paused;
The passerby bestowed the bough of light on his lips to darkness of sands
And pointed to a poplar and said:

"Near the tree
Is a garden-alley greener than God's dream
Where love is as blue as the feathers of honesty;
Walk to the end of the alley, which emerges from behind puberty,
Then turn towards the flower of solitude
Two steps to the flower
Stay by the eternal mythological fountain of the earth, where a transparent fear will visit you;
In the flowing intimacy of the space you will hear a rustling sound,
You will see a child
Who has ascended a tall pine tree to pick up chickens from the nest of light,
Ask him,
Where is the friend's house?

Beyond the Seas

I will build a boat
And cast it into water
And I will sail far away from this strange land
Where no one awakens the heroes
In the glade of love;
A boat with no nets
And a heart with no desire for pearls
I will keep sailing
And will lose no heart to the blue of the sea,
Or to mermaids
Emerging out of water to cast the charms of their locks
Upon the glowing solitude of the fishermen.
I will keep sailing
I will keep singing: "Away should we sail."
Men of that town had no myths
Woman of that town were not as full as a bunch of grapes
No hall mirrors reflected joys
We should sail away and away
Night has sung its song
It is now the windows' turn
I will keep singing
I will keep sailing
Beyond the seas there IS a town
Where windows are open to epiphanies
The rooftops are inhabited by pigeons
Gazing at the fountains of Human Intelligence
Every ten-year-old child holds a bough of knowledge
The townsfolk see in a brick row a flame,
Or a delicate dream;
Dust can hear the music of your feelings
The fluttering wings of mythical birds are audible in the wind
Beyond the seas there is a town
Where the Sun is as wide-open as the eyes of early-risers
Poets are the inheritors of water, wisdom, and light
Beyond the seas there is a town,
So one should build a boat.

Sohrab Sepehri (1928-80) was one of Iran’s greatest modernist poets. Translator Masoud Farahmandfar earned his MA in English literature at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

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