Azita Ghahreman

Azita Ghahreman Poems

The corn poppies came first,
...

Wearing a poppy
leave behind those black clothes,
...

They say it was like the collision of seven mountains, six oceans and two
hemispheres. Well, they lied.
Who told you I love you? I lament to the lilies, Actually, I hate you!
...

It is better to bustle away,
to be busy with some work or other
and keep love at bay.
...

5.

We stand back to back
to contemplate darkness
and the chirping of rain,
...

6.

This sheet that stretches from here to the world's end
is covered by all that fallen snow.
Why must we be lost too?
...

When winter comes
I will look in the mirror and know myself again.
On fire with ideas, my books were burning.
...

Behind these eyes that look like mine
old names are fading away, the past lies crumpled in my clenched fist -
a coppery bird in coppery wind,
...

In the silence dreams came
and brought to mind your silhouette against the sky
and you changed into a bird carrying hurt bigger than your own
...

Azita Ghahreman Biography

Azita Ghahreman is an Iranian poet, born in Iran in 1962. She has written six books in Persian and three books in Swedish. She has also translated American poetry. She has published four collections of poetry: Eve's Songs (1983), Sculptures of Autumn (1986), Forgetfulness is a Simple Ritual (1992) and The Suburb of Crows (2008), a collection reflecting on he exile in Sweden (she lives in an area called oxie on the outskirts of Malmö) that was published in both Swedish and Persian. A collection of Azita's work was published in Swedish in 2009 alongside the work of Sohrab Rahimi and Christine Carlson. She has also translated a collection of poems by the American poet and cartoonist, Shel Silverstein, into Persian, The Place Where the Sidewalk Ends (2000). And she has edited three volumes of poems by poets from Khorasan, the eastern province of Iran which has a rich and distinctive history. Azita's poems have been translated into various languages including English by Poetry Translation Centre. A new book of poetry, Under Hypnosis in Dr Caligari's Cabinet was published in Sweden in April 2012.)

The Best Poem Of Azita Ghahreman

Glaucoma

The corn poppies came first,
then the locusts
and after that the unravelling wind.
That was how childhood looked to you
before the dark water, before the thorns,
before the mountain range of a thousand mosques
cast shadow over those wild flowers.

First the poppies went
then grandmother,
then the royal rooms grew shabby,
the photos of Oppenheimer, Lumumba,
the red furniture - everything went to the second hand shop.

Joyous accordions and flags of mourning,
Turks and Kurds,
little blue patterned headscarves -
all passed us by in the street.
‘By Appointment to...' the Princes, my mother's brothers,
was stamped on every cup and shisha,
my mother, first in line for Friday prayer, kept her back to me,
my brother joined the Bassij.

First the locusts come, then the poppies
no
first the poppies went
then the locusts...

The hollow of the eye fills with snow,
the valleys of winter are white,
then come the thorns and the dark waters.....

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