Forough Farrokhzad
Even longer, Yes, much longer
She could hang in in silence
With a gaze fixed like the gaze of the dead
She could stare at the smoke of a cigarette
At the shape of a cup
At the faded flower of the rug
At an illusory mark on the wall
She could draw the curtain with stiff fingers and see
it’s pouring hard in the alley
A child with vibrant balloons,
stands under an arch
A rickety cart leaves the empty square in a clattery haste
She could remain there by the curtain,
but
blind,
but
deaf
She could shout
with a voice rather fake rather alien, oh, I love..
Wrapped in the strapping arms of a Male,
She could act the healthy, beautiful Female
With a body like a leather spread
and a pair of big firm tits
she could ruing the purity of love
in the arms of a drunk, a maniac, a vagabond
She could be a shrew, and mock
every astounding enigma
She could work on solving a crossword puzzle,
She could be content finding a useless answer,
Yes, a useless answer of five or six characters
She could kneel all her life
head bent, at the foot of dank shrine
She could find God
in a grave of God Knows whose
She could find faith finding an insignificant coin
She could rot down the stalls of a Mosque, like the Ziaarat-Naameh-Khaan’e Piir
She could amount to none, every single time,
in deducts and add ups and multiplies,
She could think of your eyes in their Nest of Rage
as if mere blank buttons on a pair of old shoes
She could be water, dry up inside her own hole
She could hide the Splendor of a Moment, shyly
like a silly black & white Instant Photo,
at the bottom of a chest,
In the empty frame of a day,
she could tuck a portrait of a convict,
or a conquered, or a crucified
She could conceal the bare wall with false faces
She could cling on to far more absurd roles
She could live like a Wind up Doll,
Observe the world through glass eyes
She could lie year after year in a heap of tulles and sequins
in a felt box, with a body stuffed with husk, and
with every indecent touch of a hand,
she could shout: OH HOW VERY LUCKY I AM
.
Translatated by Saghi Ghahraman