
For Simin Behbahani by Fatemeh Shams, translated by Armen Davoudian
Translation
For Simin Behbahani by Fatemeh Shams
Translated by Armen Davoudian

“This alchemist was a woman, an initiate of the light / The confidante of stars, undaunted by the night”

For Simin Behbahani
by Fatemeh Shams
Translated by Armen Davoudian
I saw a woman in a dream standing on her own grave
Facing the wind with open arms, watching it thrash and rave
Tall and stately like a nymph, a daughter of the sun
Drifting on the vagrant wind, shrouded in a white gown
I felt that as her being waned I’d also cease to be
Then from the threshold of nonbeing these verses suddenly —
It was night, a drunk and sleepless night, insomnia and wine
A brimming goblet in her hands and a full cup in mine
This alchemist was a woman, an initiate of the light
The confidante of stars, undaunted by the night
Her poetry was an embrace for the poor and destitute
Safe haven for the laborer, farmer, and prostitute
One metre seventy all the earth her motherland could spare
But when it comes to poetry, the whole world is her share
—
Note: Simin Behbehani (1927-2014) was a prominent Iranian poet. The last couplet alludes to one of her famous poems, where the poet, facing the prospect of exile, pointedly asks her country for just 1.7 metre’s worth of land (the equivalent of her height) to serve as her burial ground.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fatemeh Shams is the author of two books of poetry in Persian, the first of which won the Jaleh Esfahani Award for the best young Iranian poet in 2012, and a critical monograph in English on poetry and politics, A Revolution in Rhyme (Oxford UP). When They Broke Down the Door (Mage), a collection of her poems translated by Dick Davis, won the 2016 Latifeh Yarshater Award from the Association for Iranian Studies. Her poetry has been featured in the Poetry Foundation website, PBS NewsHour, and the Penguin Book of Feminist Writing, among other venues. She is currently assistant professor of Modern Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
AUTHOR PHOTO BY Farideh hashemian
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Armen Davoudian’s poems and translations from Persian appear in Poetry, the Sewanee Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Swan Song, won the 2020 Frost Place Competition. He grew up in Isfahan, Iran and lives in California, where he is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University.
AUTHOR PHOTO BY MATTHEW LANSBURGH • FEATURED IMAGE by Mohamed Nohassi via Unsplash
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