دیدار Tryst

دیدار

سال هاست
که ديدار
ديگر نه به قسمت
به قيامت است 
 
دلداری می کنی
 
می گويی
جوراب سياه اسب نشان
بر پاهای تو
زيبا بود 
 
هوس می کنم
نگاهت
يک بارهم شده
از پرپرزدن بيفتد
وباز
بر بند کفش هايم
ميخکوب شود 
 
تخت است يا تابوت؟ 
 
زيرنسترن لب جوی 
 
هزار پهلو
پيش تر از بيداری شايد 
با تو
در رويايی
ديدار تازه می کنم
که از پرواز زنبوری
به دور اناری ترکيده
پريشان شده بود
 
 

برای زنده ياد ليلا صراحت روشنی

Tryst

It's been years since we could say
‘with luck, we'll meet again',
since now we know for certain
we'll only meet on Judgement Day.
 
I know you'd cheer me up.
 
You'd tell me,
‘those black school tights
looked gorgeous on your legs.'
 
If only, just for once,
I could see
your shy glance
stop fluttering and fall
and be riveted
once more
on my laces.
 
Heads or tails? 
 
Before waking from a night
of tossing and turning, maybe
 
I'll meet you again
under the wings
of a rambling rose by a stream
in a dream broken
by the buzzing of a bee
round a pomegranate,
split open.
 

Tryst

[For a childhood sweetheart]
 
It's been years
that [our] meeting [again]
has not been not up to destiny
but [will be] at the Judgement Day.[1]
 
You console me.
You say,
‘The black Horse Brand tights[2]
on your legs
were beautiful.'
 
I am tempted [to see]
your gaze
just this once
stop its fluttering
and once again
be pinned
to my
shoelaces.[3]
 
Heads or tails?[4]
 
Under the wings
Of the nastaran bush by the stream [5]
a thousand tosses and turns[6]
before waking perhaps
I meet you
once again
in a dream
 
which was disturbed
by the flight [buzzing] of a bee
on the roundness of a burst pomegranate.[7]
 

Notes on the literal translation:

[1] This refers to a Persian saying “See you on the Judgement Day”, meaning I’ll never see you again as long as we live.

[2] A brand of tights popular in Kabul in Shakila’s childhood, and part of the uniform for schoolgirls.

[3] I clarified this with Shakila. This part makes clear that the poem is for a very shy/modest boy who couldn’t look at her face and who mostly stared at her feet.

[4] The metaphor used in Persian is “throne or coffin?” i.e., will I win or lose?

[5] Nastaran is a type of wild rose with fragrant sprays of small flowers and here apparently has branches that hang down like wings or an umbrella.

[6] This is a Persian saying implying a very long sleep, i.e. one in which you have tossed from side to side a thousand times.

[7]Note: I changed the order of these last few lines, as Shakila clarified that it was the dream that was disturbed by the bee, not any of the characters in it.

Zuzanna Olszewska, Literal Translator

Original Poem by

Shakila Azizzada

Translated by

Zuzanna Olszewska with Mimi Khalvati Language

Dari

Country

Afghanistan