IX., from The White Plain by Payam Feili, translated by George Reiner
Translation
IX., from The White Plain by Payam Feili
Translated by George Reiner
“they say : “behind the wasteland / under the big lonely sky / there’s a flower for sleeping””
IX., from The White Plain
by Payam Feili
Translated by George Reiner
“baby boy”
they say : “behind the wasteland
under the big lonely sky
there’s a flower for sleeping”
they say : “there
on the white plain side
is the drizzle raining desire”
“baby boy” my spring cloud whimpering
“baby boy” which season of what year will I rain
“baby boy?”
my night is not your likeness
my night’s hollow and black
like destiny and failure
like a morning come
like a year that’s passed...
The White Plain was first published in Persian by Nogaam Publishers in 2013.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Payam Feili is an Iranian poet, activist, and writer with eight works published: three collections of poems, Sun Platform, Hasanak, and The White Plain; three novels, Towers and Ponds, I grow green, I bear fruit; Figs, and A planet whose only inhabitants are butterflies; and two collections of short stories, The Purpleness of Purple and The Speech of the Waters. These works are considered a forbidden subject in Iran, but in recent years, and especially outside Iran, they have been welcomed by a Persian-speaking audience. Feili is currently based in Haifa, Israel.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
George Reiner is a poet, translator, and writer based in London. His work can be found in Berfrois and Under a Warm Green Linden, and he has contributed texts for project spaces such as South London Gallery, London, ERGO Collective space, Athens, Capela da Boa Viagem, Madeira, and forthcoming texts for Balcony, Lisbon, IKLECTIK, London and CasaPiena, Sicily. His work interrogates animality, hospitality, translation, and sexuality by mythopoetic relationalities and lyrical academica. With Penny Burkett, they have published ‘cruising for lavs’ which explores queer relations and experiences in Polari.
FEATURED IMAGE by Alireza Khoddam via Unsplash
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