For Simin Behbahani by Fatemeh Shams

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.