Zahrad - R A I N

You cannot ride the subway

Poor drops of rain

You cannot enter the home of a war profiteer

A mansion’s roof does not leak

I and the likes of me love you

You bring affluence

The price of bread drops

But I am sleepy

At least do not drip on my pillow

                                         Zahrat

Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - METEOR

Not enough rocks around

To stone the whole bunch of us

Each one of us one by one --

We gather around on the same rock

All of us in one place and we wait

For that one gargantuan meteor

-- That never comes

Zahrad

Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - WOMAN CLEANING LENTILS

A lentil – a lentil – lentils – a lentil – a stone –
a lentil – a lentil – a stone
A green one - a black one – a green one – a black one – a stone –
a green lentil
Lentil next to lentil – stone next to lentil –
suddenly a word – word next to lentil
Then words – a lentil – a word – word next to a word –
then a sentence
And word by word a daft dialect – a tattered song – an old dream
Then a life – another life – life next to life – a lentil – a life
An easy life – a hard life – why easy? – why hard?
But lives side by side – a life – then a word – a word –
then a lentil
A green one – a black one – a green one – a black one – a pain –
a green song
A green lentil – a black one – a stone –
a lentil – a stone – a stone – a lentil.

ZAHRAD
translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - THE CROW THE BAT THE MONKEY THE DOVE

THE CROW

To try less
To know and perceive less
Only to learn
that if you climb up this steep hill
on the way back
your descent will be calmer still and easier

I am not the one saying this but an old black crow
that landed on my way one morning


THE BAT

While screaming “arrest them!
Catch them!” A crafty bat yells
a warning
at the words around him
to run and get away!

and the poem
is left half finished –
unable to reach you


MONKEY

You are the monkey
Supposedly you ape us –
You illicit forebear!
Who is aping whom?


THE DOVE

If words were to lack
bit by bit
I dampen old canvasses
I mend them
I collect – and dispatch
the words
to the oldest
deluge
the last dove
of which
has not returned yet

Should words be left over
I rekindle
I plan – I feed
with words
the foremother of birds
the dove of the deluge

And words cease to be words
They turn to dove


Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - DOWN TO ZERO

It was
A hollow loop – lying down
Yawning with languor –
-- I took and put it around my neck --

I thought I’d collapse under its weight – instead
light as a feather –
I felt like a speedy sparrow
Stealing mulberries from a tree
-- or it was that way anyway – who knows? I didn’t!

Then I removed it from my neck
Set it before me – it was springtime
-- Green wind – green hill – green stallion --
As if it were the world instead of the zero
that I began to see as I had not seen before

I dived into its illusory circle – and suddenly
A vacuum overflowed inside me –
Sorrow and yearning – regret and intrigue – all vanished

I sprang out of the zero
– All round and hollow
it yawned with languor


Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - A SIEVE OF WATER

Let me owe you a sieve of water
-- let it be a game where
saber
sword
flames
are covered
with moss in silence

in the tepid and humid south wind
let all starships
approach the harbor
-- and let the pearly sea
not be disturbed ever
when with disillusion and a sieve of water
I scamper shore to shore

Let me owe you a sieve of water

Poem by Zahrat
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - METAL YOU AND I

Years full and filling
I a golden ceiling –
You an old and feeble
Floor of zinc

As I search and bounce wall to wall
-- steel spring --
You snooze and sleep
A zilch made of tin

Life a cast
Stressing lead –
You and I iron
For me
Solid fate
For you distress
-- Rust --

Copper ring
Don’t let the gale whisk you away
Resist like me
Silver fox

Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - THROUGH THE KEY HOLE

Inside the lock
The key turns back
A tumbler moves inward
And a door opens
on life

Then the door is locked on us
- The key turns forward
The tumbler outward –
And the joy of life is left
Behind the closed door

Then all of us
Turn back
And watch ourselves
Through the keyhole

Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - SUMMIT- BOUND MY HEART

Heart of mine – you cannot swim without me –
Love is vast as seas – but the sea is not love
It grabs and moves
to seven distant seashores –
Do not be enticed
My heart – do not leave

Heart of mine – you cannot shine without me –
Love is sun – the sun is not love
It sears – it burns
it pours seven-hued flames on you –
Do not be tempted
My heart – do not burn

Heart of mine – you cannot shudder without me
Love is a shiver – shiver is not love
It freezes
It covers you with seven layers of snow –
Do not be entranced
My heart – do not freeze

Heart of mine – with or without me
It is not proper to crawl in the dust –
My love is a radiant mountain summit –
Hear the mountain – calling –
it sings a seven-string song along
the sad endings of all loves –
Do not despair
My love – as a pair
Let us rise to the summit


Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - STONE

A.
The stone -- which you step on and keep going
The stone – on which you spit
The stone
that you hurl at each other’s heads
in stead of insults
like a curse
I pick that stone up with care
and take it to my room
I kneel in front of it
and I pray

B.
Stone – my own – my stone – stone
stone of my heart – stone of my mind's eye
stone – the unfeasible – stone – the unassailable –
stone – mine – my share – stone

C.
Step on the stones and pass
Jump from stone to stone on the stones
Let me watch the merry caravans
Let me watch the steadfast caravan
and – wait here indefinitely
petrified – me
Go on friends trample and pass
I myself stone – stone

D.
What are stones to you anyway?
You throw them
I pick them up

E.
I pray
I kneel in front of it
that stone that I pick up with care
Stone
which like a curse
Instead of insult
You throw at each other’s heads
The stone -- on which you spit
The stone – which you step on and pass
Stone – my own – my stone – stone


ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - RIGHT ANGLE

While everyone
horizontal
and me vertical –
whomever I met
At once we formed a right angle

I told them
They can trust the right angle –
they can believe
That wherever it is – in whatever shape
ever truthful
It is a straight ninety degrees

In comparison – I asked them – can you
Without careful measurement
Without detailed assessment
acute or not
Offer an angle to your beloved
and in certitude
State its degree?

They said I was right –
then they lay down
horizontal and
went back to sleep

Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad - OFF-CENTER

According to him
He was the center of the world
But his center was not the world
--There was a reciprocal error –

He tried hard to correct it
Lifetime was not enough


Poem by ZAHRAD
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

Zahrad- RAIN

You cannot ride the subway
you poor drops of rain
you cannot enter the home of a war profiteer
a mansion’s roof does not leak

I and the likes of me love you
you bring affluence
the price of bread drops

But I am sleepy
at least do not drip on my pillow


Poem by Zahrat
Translated by Tatul Sonentz