Translator’s Note:
Nima’s allegorical poems reflect both his personal struggle as a revolutionary poet and the broader political and social upheavals of his time. “Moth from a Near Shore” captures the sense of hopelessness following the 1953 coup. “O My People,” which Nima read at the First Congress of Iranian Writers in 1946, serves as both a rallying cry and a lament for the political despair after World War II. “By the River” can be read as an homage to his brother Ladbon, a leftist forced into exile in the Caucasus. The poem’s final lines are ambiguous in Persian, a nuance I have sought to preserve in translation. Additionally, Nima sometimes incorporates local dialects from his northern Iranian upbringing. I have left the word ayeesh, meaning “rice field,” untranslated, as it would be equally unfamiliar to the Persian reader.
✶
Moth from a Near Shore
Chook, chook. Lost in the dark,
the moth from a near shore
keeps striking the glass.
Moth from a near shore,
what are you fighting for?
What do you want from my room?
The moth of the nearby shore (his voice mute) says:
How brilliant is the light in your room.
Open the door.
The night has worn me out.
The moth from a near shore imagines
a body can go anywhere
and behind each light find a haven.
Chook, chook. On a night that breeds such pain,
why doesn’t everyone come to my door?
شب پرهی ساحل نزدیک
چوک و چوک! … گم کرده راهش در شب تاریک
شب پرهی ساحل نزدیک
.دمبدم میکوبدم بر پشت شیشه
!شب پرهی ساحل نزدیک
در تلاش تو چه مقصودی است؟
از اطاق من چه میخواهی؟
:شب پرهی ساحل نزدیک با من (روی حرفش گنگ) میگوید
!چه فراوان روشنائی دراطاق توست»
باز کن در بر من
«.خستگی آورده شب در من
به خیالش شب پرهی ساحل نزدیک
هر تنی را میتواند برد هر راهی
راه سوی عافیتگاهی
.وز پس هر روشنی ره بر مفری هست
چوک وچوک! … در این دل شب کازو این رنج میزاید
پس چرا هرکس به راه من نمیآید…؟
O My People,
Sitting on the shore, happy and smiling.
Someone is dying in the water.
Someone keeps flailing hands and feet
in this dark, violent, heavy sea.
When you’re drunk on the thought
of laying your hands on your enemy,
when you vainly imagine
that by lending a hand to the weak
you’ve changed the world for the better,
when you put on your suit and tie—
when shall I tell you?
Someone in the water is giving up his life in vain.
People, with your elegant spreads on the beach,
food on the blankets, clothes on your back.
Someone is calling to you from the sea,
beating the heavy waves with his tired hands.
His mouth open, eyes wide with fear,
he sees your silhouettes from the distance,
swallows the gray depths,
every breath more anxious,
thrusting from the water
sometimes a head, sometimes a foot.
From the distance, he watches
this worn-out world and cries out for help.
You, on the calm shore, busy admiring the view—
a wave breaks upon the silent shore
sprawls unconscious like a drunk
and retreats with a cry.
And the call once more rises
from the distance: O people!
The sound of the wind grows shrill
and in the sound of the wind
his voice spreads far
and from the waters far and near
is heard:
O people!
آی آدمها
!آی آدمها که بر ساحل نشسته شاد و خندانید
.یک نفر در آب دارد میسپارد جان
یک نفر دارد که دست و پای دائم میزند
.روی این دریای تند و تیره و سنگین که میدانید
،آن زمان که مست هستید از خیال دست یابیدن به دشمن
آن زمان که پیش خود بیهوده پندارید
که گرفتستید دست ناتوانی را
،تا توانایی بهتر را پدید آرید
آن زمان که تنگ میبندید
.بر کمرهاتان کمربند
در چه هنگامی بگویم من؟
!یک نفر در آب دارد میکند بیهوده جان قربان
!آی آدمها که بر ساحل بساط دلگشا دارید
نان به سفره، جامه تان بر تن؛
.یک نفر در آب میخواند شما را
موج سنگین را به دست خسته میکوبد
باز میدارد دهان با چشم از وحشت دریده
سایههاتان را ز راه دور دیده
آب را بلعیده در گود کبود و هر زمان بیتابیش افزون
میکند زین آبها بیرون
.گاه سر، گه پا
!آی آدمها
،او ز راه دور این کهنه جهان را باز میپاید
میزند فریاد و امید کمک دارد
!آی آدمها که روی ساحل آرام در کار تماشائید
موج میکوبد به روی ساحل خاموش
پخش میگردد چنان مستی به جای افتاده. بس مدهوش
:میرود نعره زنان. وین بانگ باز از دور میآید
…«آی آدمها» –
،و صدای باد هر دم دلگزاتر
در صدای باد بانگ او رهاتر
از میان آبهای دور و نزدیک
:باز در گوش این نداها
…«آی آدمها» –
By the River
By the river the old turtle tarries.
The day is sunny,
the ayeesh fields warm.
The old stone-back turtle, basking by the river,
sleeps on the skirt of its sun.
I’m alone by the river,
tired of pleading.
I watch for my sun,
but not once does it appear.
My sun has veiled its face from me
distant among the waters.
Sunlight all around me
shedding light on all things and all places,
from my hesitation
to my haste.
There is no sun alone my sun
by the river.
در کنار رودخانه
.در کنار رودخانه میپلکد سنگ پشت پیر
.روز، روز آفتابی است
.صحنهی آییش گرم است
سنگ پشت پیر در دامان گرم آفتابش میلمد، آسوده میخوابد
.در کنار رودخانه
در کنار رودخانه، من فقط هستم
،خستهی درد تمنا
.چشم در راه، آفتابم را
چشم من اما
.لحظهای او را نمییابد
آفتاب من
.روی پوشیده است از من در میان آبهای دور
آفتابی گشته بر من هرچه از هرجا
،از درنگ من
،با شتاب من
آفتابی نیست تنها آفتاب من
.در کنار رودخانه
✶✶✶✶
Nima Yushij (1897–1960) is considered the father of modern Persian poetry and possibly the most influential Iranian poet of the twentieth century. In fact, in Iran, modern or new poetry is sometimes referred to as she’r-e nimaa’i (“Nima-like poetry”). The richly symbolic layers of his poems speak of personal, political, and poetic struggles. His poetry is the subject of numerous books in Persian and has been set to music.
✶
Kaveh Bassiri is an Iranian-American writer and translator. He is the author of 99 Names of Exile, winner of the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and Elementary English, winner of the Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize. His translations have appeared or are forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Fence, Chicago Review, The Common, Denver Quarterly, and Colorado Review. Bassiri is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a 2021 award from the Arkansas Arts Council, and a 2019 translation fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
✶
Bill Wolak has just published his eighteenth book of poetry entitled All the Wind’s Unfinished Kisses with Ekstasis Editions. His collages have appeared as cover art for such magazines as Phoebe, Barfly Poetry Magazine, Ragazine, Cardinal Sins, Pithead Chapel, The Wire’s Dream, and Phantom Kangaroo. His collages and photographs have appeared recently in the 2020 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, the 2020 Dirty Show in Detroit, the 2020 Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, the 2018 Montreal Erotic Art Festival, and Naked in New Hope 2018.
Another Chicago Magazine 