Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016)
in my small night,
what mounting regret!
wind has a rendezvous
with the trees’ leaves
in my small night,
there is terror of desolation
listen! do you hear
the wind of darkness howling?
I watch breathless
-ly and wondrously this alien happiness
I am addicted to my own hopelessness
listen! listen well!
can you hear the darkness
howling? – the dark hell
-wind scything
its way towards us?
in the night now, there is something
passing
the moon is red restless and uneasy
and on this roof – which fears
any moment
– it may cave in –
clouds like crowds of mourners
await to break in rain
ruin
a moment
and then after that, nothing.
behind this window, night shivers
and the earth stands still
behind this window an unknown
something fears for me and you
you who are green from head to toe!
put your hands
– like a burning
memory into my loving hands –
lover’s hands!
entrust your lips – your lips
like a warm sense of being! –
entrust! – your lips to the caresses of my
– loving lips – lover’s lips!
the wind will carry us with it
the wind will carry us with it
Forugh Farrokhzad1
- 1Poem by Forugh Farrokhzad recited in Bad ma ra khahad bord [The Wind Will Carry Us] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999), translation by David Martin.