And A Message on the Way
by Sohrab Sepehri
Translated by Abas Zahedi
Some day
I will come and bring a message.
Into veins I will cast light,
And call out, “O you whose baskets are full of dreams!
I have brought you an apple, the red apple of the Sun.”
I will come to offer the beggar a lilac flower.
I will give the lovely leprous woman a pair of earrings.
To a blind man I will say, “How enchanting the garden is!”
I will become a peddler, roam the alleyways
and cry out, “Dews, dews, dews.”
A passer-by will say, “It is indeed a dark night.”
To him I will give a galaxy.
On the bridge there is a little legless girl.
Round her neck I will hang the Great Bear.
All lips I will purge of obscenities.
All walls I will tear down.
I will inform the bandits,
“A caravan is arriving with a load of smiles.”
I will tear up the clouds
Graft eyes onto the sun, heart onto love,
The shadows onto water, and the branches onto wind.
I will graft infantile dreams on the murmuring crickets.
I will fly kites
Water flowerpots,
Go to horses and cows,
and put the green grass of love before them.
For a thirsty mare, I will bring a bucket of dews.
There is a decrepit donkey on the way
I will scare the flies off its body.
I will come to plant a carnation on each wall.
I will sing a verse to every window.
I will give each crow a pine tree.
I will tell the snake: “The frog is so glorious!”
I will reconcile.
I will familiarize.
I will walk on.
I will eat light.
I will love.