Home > Translation > Two poems from the Persian by Ali Abdolrezaei

Two poems from the Persian by Ali Abdolrezaei

February 11, 2011

translated by Abol Froushan

Threesome

زنی که لب هایش می بوسید
در قطاری که داشت لندن را وسط پاریس پیاده می کرد
از زنی که بوسه بر لب هایش ماسید
وقتی جدا شد
به سوی مردی دوید
که من نبودم
اگر چه می دانم
چمدانی هم آن وسط جا ماند
که مال او نبود
دو دست که دور یک گردن گره خورد
عاشقانه هم را بوسیدند
بدون آنکه بدانند
زن دیگری هم هست
که عاشقانه می خواهد
در این مراسم شرکت کند

1

The woman whose lips kissed
in the train that dropped London off mid-Paris
when she parted
from the woman on whose lips smeared a kiss
ran towards a man
that I was not
though I know
a book also stayed open in the middle
that was not hers
two arms that tied around a neck
and kissed each other like lovers
without knowing
that there is another woman too
who is longing to take part in this ritual

تمام این چند سالی که با هم ازدواج کرده بودند
زنش داشت به او خیانت می کرد
امروز آمده بود اینجا که اعتراف کند زنی را گاییده ست
و هق هق می گریست
طفلی
ما مردها
چقدر مادر جنده ایم!

2

In all the years they are married
she has been cheating on him
He had come here today to confess he has slept with a woman
and he was all in tears
poor us
Men! So many sons of bitches!

دلش می خواهد
با من به سینما برود
بیاید!
بیاید و حالش را ببرد
بعد هم می خواهد
به کافه ای در هلبورن دعوتم کند
چرا که نه!؟
تازه دوست دارد
مرا به دوستش هم نشان بدهد
چه بهتر!
بعد از چهل بهار آب دادن
طبیعی ست
که هر گلی عاشقم باشد
علی الخصوص هر آن دو تایی که مایلند سه بکنند
فقط مانده ام با این یکی چه کنم
شورش را درآورده
چه آرزوی محالی
چه غلط ها!
با من دلش می خواهد
بخوابد و آخ!
عاشق هم نشود

3

She desires
to go to the movies with me
let her!
Let her come and enjoy
and then she wants to invite me to a cafe in Holborn
why not?
she would also even like to show me off to her friends
so much the better!
it is natural after all of forty sprinklings
for any flower to fall in love with me
especially any two who would like to make three
I’m just stuck not knowing what to do with this one
they’ve really spoiled the show
what an impossible dream
what hubris!
with me her heart wants to mix
let her want to   Ah!
and she should not fall in love

* * *

فرانسه

 

فرانسه دارد کم کم خودمانی می شود با ما
یا پاریس را به کشور دیگری برده اند
که دریا هم سیاهم کرده ست؟
ماهی به این سیاهی
کوچولو!
جای صنم که صمد را دنبال نمی کند
به قلابی که انداخته ای در دلم
دیگرهیچ قلبی تُک نمی زند
باد سراسیمه رفته ست شمال
خشک است لب ساحل و
نم پس نمی دهد دریا
و باران که تکلیف آمدنش روشن نیست

دیگرنمی آید
که با انگشت های باریکش
موهای مرا شانه کند
پس اگر در پاریس
یا کشور دیگری در پاریس
مرا دست در دست دختر دیگری در خیابان دیدی
خیال نکن خیانت کرده ام به تو
حتمن او را با تو اشتباه گرفته بودم

France

Is France getting more and more familiar with me
or has Paris been transported to another country
that even the Seine is deceiving me as a black sea?
This little black fish
no longer bites the bate you threw in my heart
the wind has hurriedly driven north
the seaside gives no water
and the sea gives no wave
and the rain the probable rain
no longer rains down on my hair like your slender fingers
so if in Paris
or another country in Paris
you ever saw me arm in arm with another girl
don’t think I’m cheating you
be certain I have mistaken her for you


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Ali Abdolrezaei (website, page on Poetry International Web) was born in 1969 in Northern Iran.  He graduated with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tehran Technical and Engineering University. He began his professional poetic career in 1986 and became one of the most serious and contentious poets of the new generation of Persian poetry. Abdolrezaei has had an undeniable effect on many Persian poets through his poetry as well as his speeches and interviews. He is also one of the few poets who has succeeded in expressing a unique poetic individuality. His 21 varied books of poetry demonstrate his poetic creativity and power. Nearly all well-known poets and critics of Persian poetry have written about Abdolrezaei’s work. In September 2002 after his protest against heavy censorship of his latest books such as So Sermon of Society and Shinema, he was banned from teaching and public speaking. He left Iran and after staying a few months in Germany, followed by two years in France, he moved to London, where he has been living for the last 5 years.

Abol Froushan (page on Poetry International Web) was born in Tehran and has lived in London since 1975. Alongside a career in high-tech (from nuclear engineering to information architecture) where he works for a major UK insurance company, Abol has published two selections of his poetry: A Language Against Language (English) 2008 by EWI and the bilingual volume, I Need Your Desert for my Sneeze [PDF] (in Persian & English) in 2009 by PoetryPub. He has also published two volumes of his English translations of Ali Abdolrezaei: In Riskdom where I lived (2008) by EWI and Sixology (April 2010) by PoetryPub. Other published translations of Abol include Parham Shahrjerdi’s Risk of Poetry, by Poetry Pub. Abol has been published in the anthology Silver Throat of the Moon Ed. J Langer and the Exiled Ink magazine, as well as many online literary magazines such as Danse Macabre, Indigo Rising Magazine, Troubadour21 and Luciole Press.

  1. John Lear
    February 11, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    I think this is terrific, on first reading. I love its ambition and scope. There is far too much small scale poetry in every sense of the word appearing these days. And its linguistic rigour, in the translation. i would like to comment on this fiurther after a few more readings

  2. Janice Thomas
    February 12, 2011 at 4:50 am

    Very intense reading, very emotional, touching, as I will read it over again. Overall I like reading poems this one is a bit different to what poems I have read. Gripping and keeps you reading, as it did for me. With a poem like this I will admit it usually takes me at least two times to really get the entire meaning.. of course that is my why of comprehending and dealing with having ADD. I write stories and have two books coming out soon.I always follow Ali’s poems on his FB page.I am speechless about his poetry. It’s so close to the truth. Marvellous work.
    Thanks for translating them Abol.

  3. Maryam Zamani
    February 12, 2011 at 7:31 am

    Wonderful,thank you

  1. February 12, 2011 at 4:23 pm
  2. May 9, 2011 at 3:30 pm
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