LOVE AND BEAUTY-2

AN ANTHOLOGY OF PERSIAN POETRY FROM 17TH CENTURY
(Selected and translated by Asef Fekrat)


THY WORDS
Kindness or abuse
Your words pacify my heart
Like water
Cold or warm
Extinguishes the fire
THY SMELL
So fond of you
I smell your sweet smell
From my breath

HEART’S PALPITATION
Standing aside you
My heart’s palpitation
Keeps me far awayDUST
The dust from your way aroused
My every hair is a desire hand
RESURRECTION
I want to resurrect from a point
Where my lovely sweetheart
Even for once
Has put her feet

FLOWER
Cheerful flower
Leaves the garden
To be in your room

ROSE BRANCH
Like a rose branch
Grappling with breeze
She likes to be with me
But runs away

SWEAR
I swore one thousand times
Not to mention your name
But I swore always
By your name

FOOTPRINT
Your footprint
Wave of life water
Your footfall
Partridge’s laugh

TWO
Don’t blame
If I have two sweethearts
To be alive
You need one soul and one heart

LIKE A CAT
From a corner of the wall
A hole of the window
Or a gap of the door
Like a cat
I will find my way to you

YOUR SMELL
I was a moment with you
My poem savours of paradise

PERFUME
The breeze is perfumed
By your breath
The water by your picture
LONELY
Without you
Like abandoned rooms
My eyes are closed against all
CROSS
Erect a cross on my tomb
I am leaving this world
Loving a Christian sweetheart

MIRROR
It is not dew upon lawn and flowers
The spring, missing you
Threw down the mirror

LOVE AND BEAUTY-1

AN ANTHOLOGY OF PERSIAN POETRY FROM 17TH CENTURY
(Selected and translated by Asef Fekrat)
HONEY-MILK
Thy silver of body
Like shelled fresh almond
How can I praise thy oval eyes?
***
Thy lips and teeth – when you talk
Are mixed honey with milk

READY
Thy cheeks’ roses
Wet of sweat dew
Thy lips
Buds, ready to kiss

ENVY
Dying of envy
How can I look at cup of wine!
Kisses her lips
Resigns its being

JUJUBE
Jujubes of thy lips
Prescribed for lover’s fever

CHILDISH 
Among fairs
I’m fond of a childish one
Allows a kiss
Wants it back

HURT
Thy lips are hurt
Woe is me!
Drank the wine
Broke the cup

TASTE
Allow a kiss from lips
Another from cheeks
I’ll tell you
Which was the best?

PROFITABLE
Snatching a kiss
A profitable theft
Is double
If retake

PARROTS 
Your smile in the rose-garden
Turns the leaves
Into sweet-spoken parrots

OVERJOYING
The bud is overjoying
It’s told
Looks like your mouth

BUD AND CEDAR
The bud saw thy lips
Dares not to laugh
The cedar saw thy stature
Dares not to boast

DESSERT-LESS
How long can I drink dessert- less?
I am thirsty for thy lips
Serve wine- with dessert

SWEET DEATH
Sweetest death forever
Kissing thy lips
Submitting my soul

EYELASH
The eyelash turned up
Told the eyebrow:
Our arrow
Doesn't need a bow

EARLY MORNING
Stood by my side
Early morning
Enlightening-enlivening
Like the sunshine
Upon a poor grass

FLOWING WATER
My life passed
All in your thought
Like flowing water
In flowers’ shade

GOD’S BLESSING
Is your collar open?
Or the door of God’s blessing?

Night

What is “night”?
It keeps lovers safe from strangers
***
Particularly “tonight”
When the moon is my roommate
***
Me, drunk
The moon, in love
The night, mad…!
A quatrain by Rumi
Translated by Asef Fekrat

Mad?

I said:
“You are wine
I am your cup
I am dead
You are my soul
Now, open the door of the faith”
She said:
“Who may release a mad in the room?”

A quatrain by Rumi 

Translated by Asef Fekrat

You

I don’t know water from soil
I am spoiled and unconscious
I find no one here, in this home
You may do
You are cautious.
***
You are keeping friends together and fine
You are turning the party on
As if you are dining us or you are wine..!
***
Outwardly, you are Sun of all suns
Inwardly, you are Soul of all souls
***
You are enlivening
You are Christ
You make the gardens laugh
You are breeze
But for the thirsties
You are tough
***
O lucky young friend!
Dance and sing:
“O, my young days..!
I miss you
You are remembered- always”

From an Ode by Rumi
Translated by Asef Fekrat

My Flower

 My Flower

I wish the flower I pick for you
Could be cherished by your hand
I wish the flower I pick for you
Touch your finger like a diamond
***
I wish the flower I pick for you
Be at your front just for a while
Attract those big black eyes
Be opened with your smile
***
I wish the flower I pick for you
Be scattered on your way
If just could kiss those sacred feet
Then let it be blown away
***
Do whatever you like to do
With the flower I pick for you
But don't offer it, please
With your hand unto my foe!

Asef Fekrat - October 12, 2003

Thy Hands

Thy handsThe messengers
Interpreting peace,love and modesty
Thy hands
Beautiful swans
Adorning the lake of life.
By short attractive flights,
Parade the fervency of youth.
Thy hands
Rhythmical palpitations,
Narrating the story of love and hope
Beyond letters or sounds.
Thy hands
Two fountains up to the apogee,
Rising from a hidden spring.
Defusing light on cold hurt heart.
Thy hands
The safeguards,
In the ocean of thousand storms.
Rescue me,
Before I be drown.

Asef Fekrat