Find and share the perfect poems.
translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
To brood is to wander through a grove
where one sheep strays
and a hundred wolves follow.
Why did I make brooding my vocation
when awe was an option?
Thought spinner,
mull the wine of wonder.
Copyright © 2024 by Haleh Liza Gafori. This poem was first printed in Harvard Review, Issue 61. Used with the permission of the translator.
translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
Your laughter turns the world to paradise.
It tears through me like fire.
It teaches me.
Reborn in emptiness,
I emerge laughing,
here to learn from Love
new depths of laughter.
translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
Let’s love each other,
let’s cherish each other, my friend,
before we lose each other.
You’ll long for me when I’m gone.
You’ll make a truce with me.
So why put me on trial while I’m alive?
A lion took a wolf and a fox with him on a hunting excursion, and succeeded in catching a wild ox, an ibex, and a hare. He then directed the wolf to divide the prey. The wolf proposed to award the ox to the lion, the ibex to himself, and the hare to the fox. The lion was enraged with the wolf because he had presumed to talk of "I" and "Thou" and "My share" and "Thy share," when it all belonged of right to the lion, and he slew the wolf with one blow of his paw. Then, turning to the fox, he ordered him to make the division.