که بندد دست نیلوفر به پای سرو کوهی دام

it is only recently that i have discovered the joy that attends a good, solitary, in-depth reading of nima’s poetry. i mean i have read the standard stock of his poetry that normally includes آی آدم ها and غمِ این خُفتهء چند، خواب در چشمِ ترم می شکند and a few others. but boy is there more to nima!

a month or so ago i bought the complete anthology of nima’s poetry from a bookshop in sharenow and only since last week when i undertook a grand reorganization of my personal library did i leave the book out for closer reading. and i have come across material that amazes and moves.

i mean apart from the fact that the man is a trailblazer and a pioneer in modern persian poetry and blank verse, even with that fact given, even with the fact that before nima farsi poetry was altogether different and constrained by classicism and the tyranny of form, and that he experimented and broke barriers and made forays into as yet undiscovered territory, with all the pitfalls and dangers that mark all new forays into undiscovered territories, nima’s poetry is still, to this day, among the best of modern farsi poetry. his ease in use of language, the poetic imagery, the use of local names and jargon and speech, his craftry transformation of the mundane and the ordinary -through ingenious recombinations- into the sublime and profound, and his easy use of meter and rhyme even in blank verse is masterful and inpirational.

for a week or so now whenever i have a lull moment i hum lines from the following poem of his, and the beautiful combinations and the imagery never fail to delight me:

تو را من چشم در راهم شباهنگام
که می گیرند در شاخ تلاجن سایه ها رنگِ سیاهی
وزان دلخستگانت راست اندوهی فراهم
.تورا من چشم در راهم

شباهنگام در آندم که بر جا دره ها چون مرده ماران خفتگانند
در آن نوبت که بندد دست نیلوفر به پای سرو کوهی دام
گرم یاد آوری یانه، من از یادت نمی کاهم
.تو را من چشم در راهم

نیما-

~ by safrang on July 10, 2008.