خاطرات انزوا Memories of Seclusion

خاطرات انزوا

كفش پاي راستم
به مرخصي رفته‌است.
نه چارپاي ام حالا
نه دوپا
 
در تثليث ازلي
«نيچه» مي‌خوانم
شب‌ها به خواب‌ام مي‌آيد و مي‌گويد:
عاقبت سبيل مال‌ات مي‌كنم!
روزهاست
تلفن روي پيامگير است
امان از صاحبخانه‌ی سمج!
 
با ميله‌ی بافتني
پاي‌ام را مي‌خارانم.
 
از راست هيچ خيري نديده‌ام
چپ ، هميشه چپ بوده‌است.
خسته‌ام خسته
در اين تقابل سه‌تايي:
راست‌دستي،
 چپ‌فكري
هيچ‌باوري.
 

Memories of Seclusion

My right shoe has gone on leave
I'm neither four-footed, nor two
 
I read Nietzsche in a state of primordial trinity
At night he enters my sleep and says: 
Finally, I get to rub out your moustache!
 
The phone has gone straight to voicemail for days
Yet again, the bloody landlord!
 
I scratch my foot with a knitting needle
 
Nothing good ever came from the right
The left is left
I am weary, so weary,
tired of this tripartate opposition:
right-handedness, left-mindedness, nihilism
 

Memories of Seclusion

My right shoe has gone on leave
I am neither four-footed now nor two-footed
 
I read "Nietzsche" in primordial trinity
At nights, he comes to my sleep and says:
At last, I will rub your mustache away!
 
Telephone has been on answering for days
Again, this importunate landlord!
 
I scratch my foot with knitting needle
 
I never saw any good from the right
Left has always been left
I am tired, tired
Tired of this tripartite opposition
Right-handedness, left-mindedness, nihilistic belief!
 

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

Original Poem by

Ali Abdollahi

Translated by

Alireza Abiz with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Farsi

Country

Iran