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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
Let Love,
the water of life,
flow through our veins.
Let a Love-drunk mirror
steeped in the wine of dawn
translate night.
You who pour the wine,
translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
Whatever the ways of the world,
What fruits do you bring?
Say earth and sky fall to idolatry—
all of us on our knees, worshipping figurines.
translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
Why paint night over nightless day?
Every religion has Love,
but Love has no religion.
Love is an ocean—
no borders no shores.