Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016)

in my small night,

what mounting regret!

wind has a rendezvous

with the trees’ leaves

in my small night,

there is terror of desolation

listen! do you hear

the wind of darkness howling?

I watch breathless

-ly and wondrously this alien happiness

I am addicted to my own hopelessness

listen! listen well!

can you hear the darkness

howling? – the dark hell

-wind scything

its way towards us?

in the night now, there is something

passing

the moon is red restless and uneasy

and on this roof – which fears

any moment

– it may cave in –

clouds like crowds of mourners

await to break in rain

ruin

a moment

and then after that, nothing.

behind this window, night shivers

and the earth stands still

behind this window an unknown

something fears for me and you

you who are green from head to toe!

put your hands

– like a burning

memory into my loving hands –

lover’s hands!

entrust your lips – your lips

like a warm sense of being! –

entrust! – your lips to the caresses of my

– loving lips – lover’s lips!

the wind will carry us with it

the wind will carry us with it

Forugh Farrokhzad1

• 1Poem by Forugh Farrokhzad recited in Bad ma ra khahad bord [The Wind Will Carry Us] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999), translation by David Martin.