THE WORLD IS NOTHING

The World Is Nothing
The world is nothing
but a show:
lions leap through hoops of fire,
some heads get snared in a noose,
and my finger slips through the ring you gave me
when I was simple

YOU ARE STRANGER

You’re a Stranger
You’re a stranger
in a brown jacket
smoking a Marlboro
passing me by
You don’t know my name
and I can’t tell you –
not that it’s a secret:
too much grass grows over my gravestone.

I SIT ON THE PIER

I Sit on the Pier
I sit on the pier
with you beside me
your arm round my shoulder
your polished shoes
reflecting the sky
Oh, freedom!
embrace me again under this sun.

WHEN I Rest MY HEAD

When I Rest My Head on Your Shoulder
When I rest my head on your shoulder
I am at peace with the world
The radio plays my favourite songs
the weather is perfect
and that unexpected knock at the door
isn’t the taxman.

IT ARRIVES

It Arrives
It arrives
when you least expect it –
in a park,
in a bookshop,
or right here where I’m standing:
love wraps round you
just like a warm scarf
banishes the winter

***

Fariba Shadloo was born in 1985 in Mashhad, Khorasan Province in Iran. She studied midwifery and worked as a midwife in Mashhad hospitals for a few years. She also worked for local newspapers and student journals as a literary editor

courtesy : Poetry Translation