BY MOHSEN HOSSEINKHANI
Translated into English by Tahereh Forat Safai
Copyright is held by the author.
#2
We sleep together every night,
We wake up darker each day,
And I love you,
A shared word
That we didn’t know
How to turn on our tongues.
Our expectation of each other
Is the expectation of a flashlight’s brightening,
Which in its heart
Two batteries
Lie sleeping in reversed positions.
#4
The earth exists,
We are in non-existence,
Spinning around.
I think of the wind
That shakes the branches,
Of destiny
That holds us.
I doubt the law of gravity
And do not understand
The relationship of love and play,
Birth and death.
I doubt myself,
To . . .
And I take refuge in you,
In your eyes,
In your hands,
In your lips,
And I savour
The remnants of life’s sweetness.
I think of the wind
That has a quarrel with your scarf,
And has realized
The distance between disbelief and faith
Is no more than a single hair.
Words swirl in my mind:
Love,
Death,
Birth,
Play.
Play comes to a halt
Beside death.
Love
Sits
Next to life
#5
When death arrives,
Each time,
It leaves the heaviness of its shadow
On our soil,
And its lightness
Soars toward distant lands.
We
Are born from the copulation of pain and suffering,
And like an artificial flower in a glass of water,
We have fallen into life.
If suffering cracks the skin of humanity,
Pain rises from the earth.
Oh, soil,
Oh, red gem
Set in a blue ring,
Which hand stole you from us?
When will that finger
That points to destruction be severed?
***
Mohsen Hosseinkhani was born in Iran in 1988. He began reciting poetry professionally at cultural institutes in 2007. To date, he has published nine poetry collections in free verse, including Take Back My Childhood (2010), These Small Romances One Day Grow (2011), Rain Never Stops After You (2014), The Earth Eclipse (2015), Just Death Lives (2017), Orange Spring (2021), Trotting in a Gloomy Plain (2021), The Mountain Does Not Take Back My Voice (2023), and Guardian of the Moon (2024). His works have been translated into Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish by distinguished translators and have appeared in reputable magazines. He describes his poetry as simple yet lively, rich in imagery and nostalgia. Hosseinkhani has received nominations from the Glavej Festival and Shine Magazine.
Translator, Tahereh Forat Safai, born in 1961 in Iran, holds a Ph.D. in Translation of English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester. To date, she has translated two books. She is also a poet and short story writer. Safai has lived in England for approximately 15 years and is currently residing in Kermanshah, Iran. Her translations include Follow Your Heart by Andour Mathew (2014) and Trotting in a Gloomy Plain by Mohsen Hosseinkhani (2024).