Friend Poem by Sohrab Sepehri

She was great
And belonged to the present time
And had affinity with all bright horizons.
And fathomed the language of the earth and water.

Her voice
Sounded like the sad tone of truth.
Her eyelids
Pointed
To the heartbeats of elements.
Her fingers
Leafed through
The generous air.
And she directed kindness
Towards our hearts.

She was the image of her solitude.
And for the mirror she interpreted
The most amorous moments of her own Time.
Like rain, she was full of fresh repetitions.
And like the trees
She grew with the blessing of light.

She called out the wind's childhood.
And tied the strings of words
To the latch of water.
And one night she enunciated
The Green Message of Love
So vividly
That we touched the emotion of the earth
And felt fresh like a bucket of murmuring water.

Again and again we saw her
Basket in hand
Going to pluck a cluster of glad tidings.

Alas,
She failed to sit in full view of the pigeons
And walked to the brink of Nil
And stretched out beyond the patient Lights.
And she did not mind at all
How lonely we would feel
To eat apples
At the intervals of the distressing closing of doors!


(Translated by Ismail Salami)