from Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou(World Poetry Books, Nov. 2025)
Translated from the Persian by Niloufar Talebi
Fish
My heart
has never been
this warm, this red:
Even in the worst moments of this deadly night
thousands of sun-springs well up
in my heart
from certainty.
In every crevice and corner of this desert of despair
thousands of lush forests
burst from the earth.
□
O lost certainty, you runaway fish,
slipping layer by shimmering layer into the mirror pools!
I am a clear pond now—by the spell of love!
Find your way to me through the mirror pools!
□
My hand
has never been
this glad, this grand:
A song’s never-setting sun
breathes through the cascade of crimson tears
spilling from my eyes.
Now
in every vein
to every heartbeat
the waking bells
of a caravan ring.
□
She came to me naked through the door one night,
like a water sprite—
two fish at her breast, a mirror in her hand,
her wet hair moss-scented, like moss intertwined.
I screamed at the edge of despair:
O, newfound certainty—I will never let you go again!
1959
From Garden of Mirrors (1960)
The Sixth Song
What a wonder
that we once didn’t exist,
that the love inside us
birthed us.
Now we are one,
intimate—
like a smile to lips, like tears to eyes—
the first moment of our history.
□
We are all uproar and outcry
now,
not a word that means,
but a sound that points to a mystery.
□
To each city a thousand temples…
Listen:
Say there is only one in the whole world
where I go to pray,
where you are.
Don’t tie so many threads of hope to the shrine—
you’d shrink me in shame at my own failings:
I am no tree of miracles,
only a tree,
a lone pine in a pool,
with no art but this—
to be your nest,
your seat,
and sarcophagus.
□
We are memento and memory now—
two birds,
relics of a flight,
and a silent throat,
relic of a song.
March 29, 1993
From The Tale of Mahan’s Restlessness (2000)
Still I Think of That Raven
For Esmaeil Khoei
Still
I think of that raven over the valleys of Yush:
black shears
cutting a crooked arc
across the matte paper sky,
both wings rustling,
above a sun-scorched field of wheat,
and facing the mountain
letting out a croak
that the mountains, with awe,
lazily echoed, for a long while
in their stone skulls
under the relentless sun.
□
Sometimes I ask myself
what a raven,
so sharp and unwavering in its presence,
its mourning cloak persistent,
has to say
as it rises at midday prayer
with thunder and fury
above a sun-scorched field of wheat,
gliding over a few poplars,
to the old mountains,
those tired and drowsy worshippers,
that echo its cry in unison
long into the summer afternoon?
September 1975
From Dagger in the Tray (1977)
Nocturnal (There’s No Door)
There’s no door
no route
no night
no moon
no day
no sun
We stand
beyond time,
a bitter dagger
in our backs.
No one
speaks
to anyone
because silence
speaks
in a thousand tongues.
We stare
at our dead
wearing a smile,
waiting
our turn—
without
a smile!
April 4, 1972
From Abraham in Flames (1973)
The Gardener’s Dream
When sleep brings me to my feet
I take to bed at sundown
yet I carry on pulling the same wild weeds
I pull from the field by daylight
even as I sleep at night…
1959
From Garden of Mirrors (1960)
One of Iran’s most influential cultural figures of the twentieth century, Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) authored more than seventy books, including eighteen volumes of poetry. Sometimes known by his pen name, Alef Bamdad, his innovations ushered in a transition from classical forms to free verse, making him a flag-bearer of the Iranian vanguard. A 1983 nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Shamlou synthesized Eastern and Western traditions and high and low styles, democratizing poetry without simplifying it. Championing the “everyman,” his work reflects a deep engagement with social issues, the human condition, and a commitment to freedom and artistic innovation.
Niloufar Talebi is an author, translator, and interdisciplinary artist. For two decades she has built a body of work around Ahmad Shamlou, including the bilingual centennial volume Elegies of the Earth (World Poetry Books, 2025), the memoir Self-Portrait in Bloom, the opera Abraham in Flames, the video poem Funeral Address, and a TEDx Talk. She is also the editor and translator of Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books). Her honors and distinctions include a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award and an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship.
World Poetry Review 