"Address" by Sohrab Sepehri, translation by Marzieh Ghiasi
“Where is the home of the friend?” asked the rider at dawn.
The sky stood still.
The passerby bequeathed
the branch of light he held to his lips
to the darkness of sands
and pointed to a poplar and said:
“Before the tree,
there is a garden lane greener than God’s dream
where love is as blue as the wings of fidelity.
Go on till that alley which emerges from maturity,
then turn to the flower of loneliness,
two steps before the flower
remain at the foot of the eternal fountain of earthly legends
where a transparent fear overtakes you.
In the flowing sincerity of the space, you hear a rustling
A child you see
has climbed a tall pine, to take a chick from the nest of light
and you ask him
where is the home of the friend?”
خانه دوست كجاست؟” در فلق بود كه پرسيد سوار.
آسمان مكثی كرد.
رهگذر شاخه نوری كه به لب داشت به تاريكی شنها بخشيد
و به انگشت نشان داد سپيداری و گفت
“نرسيده به درخت،
كوچه باغی است كه از خواب خدا سبزتر است
و در آن عشق به اندازه پرهای صداقت آبی است
می روی تا ته آن كوچه كه از پشت بلوغ، سر به در می آرد،
پس به سمت گل تنهایی می پيچی،
دو قدم مانده به گل،
پای فواره جاويد اساطير زمين می مانی
و تو را ترسی شفاف فرا می گيرد.
در صميميت سيال فضا، خشخشی می شنوی:
كودكی می بينی
رفته از كاج بلندي بالا، جوجه بردارد از لانه نور
و از او می پرسی
خانه دوست كجاست
I could not for the life of me get the quotes to go where I wanted them to in the Persian version, sorry about that. Also, I wanted to have transliteration/transcription of the Persian here too, especially since
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dhobikikutti really wanted one, but since I can't make heads nor tails of any of the accepted transcription/transliteration schemes and all my attempts were coming out horribly un-pronounceable, I've given up on it. But bonus! Here is a link to
a rather cheesy video of a guy reading the poem in Persian, if you want to know what it sounds like in the original Persian. And a more pleasant option,
here is Axiom of Choice's song "Greener Than God's Dream," which features most of the poem sung beautifully by Mamek Khadem.
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