Her Grief

In the quest for you

I sobbed at the knees of the mount,

at the edge of the sea and the turf.

In the quest for you

I moaned with the wind.

Along eroded face of the routes,

At the crossroad of seasons.

And over a broken window

which made a wooden frame

for the cloudy blues of the skies.

In hope of your image

How long, long, how long,

this frame will remain plain?

Your charm,

was allowing for passage of the breeze

and of love, and also of death

which confided in you

their perpetual insights.

Hence you became a pearl

Immense, enviable and precious:

the treasure which bears, solely,

the entire delight of belonging to the land.

Your name is a sunrise,

shining over the vast front of the skies,

Be hallowed you name!

And we are still rotating nights and days,

in this elusive yet.

By Ahmad Shamloo (Shamlu, Shamlou) for Forough Farrokhzd

From Forough Farrokhzad The Sad Little Fairy
, translated by Maryam Dilmaghani