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The Winter Homily
Translated By Farhad Mafie December 2000. From the collection Earth and Time (Zamin va Zamān). An
epic of the Alborz Mountains and its summit, Damavand O,
the fire that flames from inside the night! rises
to dance, but
turns to stone by morning! O,
the memory of the earth’s seething anger in
the days when the sky’s rage was spreading. O,
the sense of pride! O,
the point where epics begin and end! O,
the magnificent summit of old epics! O,
the house of Ghobad
! O,
the stony nest, the destiny of the phoenix! O,
the land of Zal
the
Champion’s childhood! O,
the astonishing summit! O,
the anonymous grave of the unfortunate Jamshid! O,
the cliff of anguish of Zahhak the Black-Hearted! O,
summit! O, valiant champion![1]
O, combatant of old! O,
he who was thrown into his brother’s well! But
the king’s crown at
the moment of the fall was
saved for the world from the well’s narrow pass.[2]
O,
the white summit on the horizon of childhood! So
like a whitened sugar cone on blue paper. O,
the summit new in appearance to the poet’s imagination! Like
a gigantic stone that lasts forever! I
am, on a night when even the crickets are sleeping, the
loneliest voice in the world, never
reaching anyone else, from any direction. I
am, in the frozen silence of this dark night, the
loneliest voice and the loneliest person, lonelier
than God working
on the numinous creation of the world, lonelier
than the stars’ praying sound along
the hands of speechless trees, lonelier
than the breeze’s morning anthem in
the city of sleepers. You,
O, far summit! In
the beginning of the upcoming spring, will
the loneliest voice in the world be
allowed to echo in your quietness? Will
my lost voice, panting, be
able to find a path to your height? Will
your cold mouth, by my warm tune, be
able to erupt again? Ah,
O, the tranquil and the virtuous! O,
the dour wintry face! O,
the angry lion! Will
I, from the small door of this strange exile, again
see the rising of the sun from
your summit peak? Will
I be able to see you again? [1] Translator: A reference to Rostan, the “champion” in Shahnameh. [2] Translator: In Shahnameh Rostan goes to Mazandaran and saves King Kavos from the well and thus saves the kingdom.
Copyright
© 2003 by Farhad Mafie. All
rights reserved. No reprint, duplication, or distribution of this material in any form is allowed without written permission. For information, please contact Farhad Mafie at Mafie@att.net or at (949) 851-1714. |