Play and Poetry
Here are a few Poems from “Songs of Prison”, a persian poetry book by my father, Amir Hossein Sajadieh. I co-translated the poems with the late dear Nader Rafii. With Stephanie Ringstaff, the English translator of the book, together we recreate the Persian translation of the poems into English poetry.
Song 49(Halos)
They took
Everyone
Everything
All there was
Up
Up
To the edge
Up and into the pit
Sleeping in the Earth
Up to the dream of history.
The ashes that smell of you
Will linger in the prison
In halos
Dark halos
In the memory of the air
Will meld with
The sand
The stones
The cement.
Perhaps one day
The wall will collapse
And freedom will come
And dance
With joy
In halos
And halos
In the air.
They took
Everything there was
Everyone there was
Up
Up
Up
To the dream of history.
Song 48(Another Number)
The butterfly flies away from the prison
To the photo album
To the calendar
When the sound of the
Bang
Bang
Bang
Of single shots is heard.
The butterfly,
A number around its neck,
Blossoms
In a rain of shots,
And rests in the
Layers
And layers
Of the photo album,
Of the calendar,
In dust.
The butterfly flies away from the prison
When the sound of the
Bang
Bang
Bang
Of single shots is heard.
Song 16 (Homecoming)
The wind came out of the walls.
The wind
Took long, long steps,
Setting foot beyond the walls,
Beyond the forbidden words.
The wind had abandoned time,
The happy, happy wind.
The wind
With two long legs,
Two long human legs,
Had fled
From the enclosure,
Through the walls,
Fled captivity.
Long,
Long,
It strode.
When it reached the square,
Happy, happy,
It greeted the shadows:
Shadows hanging from the poles,
The shadows in the execution square.
The wind said “hello”,
But nobody would respond.
The wind said hello again.
The wind gave the shadows a shaking.
Nobody would give him a response.
The wind stayed.
A little longer…
Then went away.
Far, far away…
The wind began wailing in the wilderness.
Song 21 (Refuge)
When the moon went beyond the night
I dreamt of when I was an infant
When the ceiling was barred
Barred and blocked
When the moon was a mother
Nursing me
When I was thirsty
When the cries of my nursing days
Gave way to screams of pain in the interrogation room
In the dryness of my mouth
When the ceiling was barred
When the moon nursed me no more
And covered her breasts
With robes of the ceiling’s concrete
When the moon faded away
When dreams were getting lost
In bright milky halos
In concrete ceilings
In sleep, fear and wakefulness
When the cries of my nursing days
Were emerging from
The screams and screams of torment
In the interrogation room
When the moon faded away in the dark night
When the cries of my nursing days
Woke me up with thirst
When the moon went beyond the night
Here is a short poetic play of mine:
SSajadieh_Through the Door Slit
Here is a one-page essay about Arts, Sciences, and Imagination, inspired by a film, called “Das Netz (The Net)” .
Sahar Sajadieh 