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Thursday 17 August 2017

Poet of the Month 042: FARZANEH KHOJANDI


FARZANEH KHOJANDI
c 2015







FORGOTTEN BY TIME



 

There was a boy.  He would spread his wares
in our alley.  The strength of the hero, Rostam,
roared from his shoulders,
he had the features of a Joseph,
his hair was the torch of Zoroaster,
flaming with ancient times.
The young boy sat on an old stool,
saying goodbye to his rose-scented time.
His sweets had no takers,
sweating in their paper wrappers;
his cheap cigarettes knew
that the point of their lives was to burn;
his soaps longed for the day
they would lather in beautiful hands and die.
The boy turned his eyes
towards passers-by
and, pondering the to and fro of cars,
he didn't think of spring coming and going.
The summer of his youth
was dissolving into sunset
and winter would wrap him in snow.
Happy?  Unhappy?
For he was oblivious to love,
for the margins of his life were rusting,
for he mistook the moon's halo for the moon.
Ruthless life had sat a young boy
on an old stool and forgotten him.

 

 


date unspecified


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Translated by
 
NARGUESS FARZAD 
 
and  
 
JO SHAPCOTT



 
 
 
The following biographical statement appears on the Poetry Translation Center website.  [It is re-posted here for information purposes only and, like the poem re-posted above, remains its author's exclusive copyright-protected intellectual property.]
 

Born in the remote Khojand province of Tajikistan in 1964, Farzaneh Khojandi is widely regarded as the most exciting woman poet writing in Persian (Farsi, Tajik) today and has a huge following in Iran and Afghanistan as well as in Tajikistan, where she is simply regarded as the country's foremost living writer.  Her frequently playful and witty poetry draws on the rich tradition of Persian literature in an often subversive and humorous way.


 

 

 

Use the link below to read more poems by Tajikistani poet FARZANEH KHOJANDI:

 

 

http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poets/farzaneh-khojandi

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 


 
Poet of the Month 030: AYTEN MUTLU

  


 
Poet of the Month 011: FATMA BEN MAHMOUD

  


 
Poet of the Month 008: MOHAMMED BENNIS

 

 

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