حالا من اینجا نشسته ام در ساحل
حالا من اینجا نشسته ام در ساحل
تو کنارم نشسته ای
دست در گردنم انداخته ای
و کفشهای واکس خورده ات
آسمان را نشان می دهند
آه ، آزادی!
مرا زیر همین آفتاب داغ ببوس
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
Now I Am Sitting Here on the Beach
Now I am sitting here on the beach
You are sitting beside me
Your hand round my neck
And your varnished shoes
Reflect the sky
Oh, freedom!
Kiss me under this very hot sun
The idea of anyone sitting on a beach fully clothed wearing freshly-polished shoes is so alien in English that, after much discussion, we had to move the scenario to a pier, where formal dress is much more plausible. We also had difficulties with that final verb because the idea is that freedom is being address in the last couplet. For us, ‘kiss’ inevitably conjures up the idea of the man kissing her; whereas it’s possible to imagine the ’embrace’ of freedom.
In the original Farsi, none of these poems has a title. Because of the way our website is set up, we’ve had to use the first line as the title for each of them.
Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator