
I Take the Pulse of My Homeland by Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou, translated by Siavash Saadlou
Translation
I Take the Pulse of My Homeland by Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou
Translated by Siavash Saadlou

“I run my fingers through the river’s skin— / the river running alongside life and death; / I come to life with it, I die in it.”

I Take the Pulse of My Homeland
by Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou
Translated by Siavash Saadlou
I take the pulse of my homeland
and glue my ear to her inner moves.
I hear the song of her deep ducts
and marry her pained blood flow
with the murmurs of the night.
I take the pulse of my homeland.
A restless dateless dancer pounds
on the morning dawn like a bell toll.
A distraught moment is awake inside her;
it has romance with my poor heart;
a being audacious but ailing.
I take the pulse of my homeland and hear,
in a capillary that goes from its belly to its head,
the old song of a ferryman sailing towards life.
A river of wine; inside it, sailboats of flowers
are the eyes of peridots on its forehead.
The helm of blooms in the fog
of blush and wine sings songs
of humble needs (reminding of daily truths),
so that the sails of an old sun
can unfurl in the desert’s river.
I take the pulse of my homeland;
I count its heartbeats.
And in the Chi River is a gem
shimmering in the night, a guide
that granted me, from my heart,
a pendant without an ornament.
I run my fingers through the river’s skin—
the river running alongside life and death;
I come to life with it, I die in it.
I take the pulse of my homeland
in the farthest darkest places of time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou, an Iranian poet, essayist, and literary critic, was born in 1940. Nicknamed the Poet of Tehran for his evocative panegyrics on Iran’s capital, Sepanlou published more than sixty volumes of poetry and essays. He was also a founding member of the Writers’ Association of Iran. Sepanlou was the recipient of several distinctions, including Legion de Honneur and Le prix Max-Jacob. He died in May 2015, aged seventy-four.
AUTHOR PHOTO BY Hossein Velayati for Mehr News Agency
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Siavash Saadlou is a writer and literary translator whose works of fiction, creative nonfiction, and criticism have appeared in Plenitude Magazine, Southeast Review, and Minor Literature[s], among other journals. His poetry has recently been anthologized in Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora (Green Linden Press). Saadlou is also the recipient of the 55th Cole Swensen Prize for Translation. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College of California.
FEATURED IMAGE by Mehran Arjmand
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