Matchbox
Jan 12th, 2010 | By Ali Abdolrezaei | Category: Poetry | 3884 viewsThe poem is translated from Persian to English by Abol Froushan
Had this rain stopped
and the blood in the street not been washed off
the bus they painted green would have brightened our eyes
and no one would have been so simple as to become a vagabond like me
Like me who dismounted from Iran
everyone’s over here making announcements over there
by the BBC
and waiting
for the radio switched on in the bus to mount us
Like matchsticks
thrown higgledy piggledy in the box
some standing and some grown used to their seats
waiting on a Noah’s steer that won’t reach land
All carry a bomb on their head
but waiting for the next match to catch fire
like matches from Tabriz
or Isfahan (that is not half the world)
to call a halt to a driver who is not behind the wheel
London’s rain gives no respite
The bus is a box of matches sliding on a slippery street.
Translator: Abol Froushan
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About Ali Abdolrezaei: Ali Abdolrezaei was born on 10 April 1969 in Northern Iran. He completed his primary and secondary education in his city of birth and after receiving his diploma in mathematics passed the nationwide university entrance exams. He graduated with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tehran Technical and Engineering University. He began his professional poetic career in 1986 and became one of the most serious and contentious poets of the new generation of Persian poetry. Abdolrezaei has had an undeniable effect on many poets of his generation through of his poetry as well as his speeches and interviews. He is also one of the few poets who succeeded in expressing his unique poetic individuality. His eight varied books of poetry – From Riskdom, Shinema, So Sermon of Society, Improvisation, This Dear Crying, Paris in Renault, You Name this Book and Only Iron Men Live in the Rain – endorse his poetic creativity and power. Publication is forthcoming for his poetry collection La Elaha Ella Love and the multi-textual Hermaphrodite. Both have received diverse critical reviews. Nearly all well-known poets and critics of Persian poetry have written about Abdolrezaei’s work. In September 2002 after his protest against heavy censorship of his latest books such as So Sermon of Society and Shinema, he was banned from teaching and public speaking. He left Iran and after staying a few months in Germany, followed by two years in France, he moved to London, where he has been living for the last three years. |
©2009 Ali Abdolrezaei All Rights Reserved
I am certain that this poem is a sheer marvel at technical level of the language.Thanks for publishing Matchbox.
love the poem. i can see the images.