What Now/Mahnaz Badihian

 

 

What Now

poem by mahnaz badihian

For Morteza Miraftabi

and his literary magazine Simorgh

 

What now?

Now that you’re used

To loneliness

Homesickness

To having and not having

To your empty hands busy with

Shelves and boxes of books

And this untuned music

You hear everyday

 

What now?

Years passed by us

And you created these poems 

And your baby took his first step

You lost in love 

And you won it back

You tasted the cold

And heat caused you fever

You cried, you laughed, 

The heart of your novels

Stopped at the roadside

In this land

Far from your country

 

What now

That you created Margaret’s statue?

You gave it soul and existence

Those who couldn’t hear your songs

Those who grew with you

And those who cried  

All saw you

On the road in the strange land

 

You pedaled and pedaled 

On the “Cycles of the Universe.”

You talked to

Margaret River’s blackened hair

And played with your pen on

The wings of the Simorgh

Creating the images of

Rumi, Shakespeare and Zoroaster

And the image of love 

 

In the end

All who heard your songs

Will meet you on the heights

 Of the Alborz

You, with your hands

Filled with pride

And with the songs of your people.

 

 

(Notes: Cycles of Universe is the name of the poem by Morteza Miraftabi. The poem What Now is inspired by a poem called José by Carlos Drummond de Anderade, the great Brazilian poet.)