- Born in 1981, Tehran, Leila Kordbache is a published poet and literary researcher. She has over ten published volumes of poetry and monographs on Persian literature. The following two poems are selected by the translator from her poetry collection Crow-Death (Nasl-e Panjom, 2012).
- Image: Detail of Artwork by Leyly Matine Daftary [1937-2007] (see full image here)
Goodbye Kisses
Goodbye kisses are bitter
bitter
Mr. Ticket Inspector!
And what’s even more bitter
Is that we are both poets
The trains whistle
And poets who live near stations
Write sadder poems.
I’m not an Intellectual Woman
I’m jealous
Of your fingers
When they tidy up your hair
I’m jealous
Of your eyes
When they see you in the mirror
And I’m jealous
Of the woman whose colored lenses
Change the color of your shirt
What shall I do?
I’m not an intellectual woman
I’m a cave-dweller
Whose heart still beats in her head
— And what if the wind that slams the windows of my house
Has blown through someone else’s hair?
And what if the rain that brings your memory to my mind
Brings someone else’s memory to yours? —
I’m jealous
And I’m afraid of you
Of myself
Of her
I’m afraid and I keep dialing your number
And the voice of an unfamiliar woman
Who maybe your perfume drips from the flowers of her shirt
Who maybe your scent drips from her fingers
Who maybe the letters of your name drip from her lips
Will drive you farther away out of my hands
You are far away
And I
plunge
into my cave of loneliness
Next to the delusion of the bat
That these days
has turned my world
Upside down.
Because of People
It’s because of the people
That I say
Bring your ear a little closer to my lips
The world
Is becoming empty of love poems
And people don’t understand
How one can love
Someone who is so faraway
so much
Without any words.
Leave a Reply