Poems

We Are Reborn

Notes

As with 'Spring', we were very fortunate to have Reza Mohammadi with us for this workshop on his poems.

Only a few lines into this poem we came up against references to the remarkable game of Buzkashi, the Afghan national game (see the footnote, above). The 'turquoise domes' that the doves sleep on refer to the gorgeous Timurid mosques with their distinctive domes, such as the stunning 'Blue Mosque' in Mazar-e-Sharif and those in other Afghan cities. Another Afghan reference is to 'kohl', the eye make-up but which, in Afghan culture has deadly connotations as well as being about beauty.

As in English culture, dandelion 'clocks' (as the name might suggest) are reputed to tell the time, just as a marked-off candle does.

The characters referred to as being born in India, Hijaz and Isfahan, are Adam, Eve and Satan.

Other than picking our way through those very specific cultural references, we found this poem easier than 'Spring'. But equally beautiful.