Memories of Seclusion

Notes

We really enjoyed translating this wry, irreverant poem by Ali Abdollahi. As you'll quickly gather, it was written when the poet was holed up with his foot in plaster, thoroughly frustrated and fed up.

Yet the lightness of tone belies the range of subject matter with which the poet engages - Nietzsche, for one. As Nietzsche's translator, Abdollahi clearly has a complex relationship with this most complex of philiosophers - and with his moustache! Iranian boys, apparently, torment each other by 'rubbing out' their victims' nascent moustaches.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator