The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and its Exiles

I Did Not Expect

56 I Did Not Expect Ahmad Reza Ahmadi I did not expect to come face to face with this absolute snow. I did not expect to come face to face with this absolute love. These sleeping birds on the glazed tiles portend this pure love will melt in that pure snow. If only you knew how I set fire to the vine. On that Friday I understood there wasn’t even time to deny that absolute love. I have seen through a lifetime so many scarred ashtrays belonging to men now dead, been witness to so many desolate days that I need no one to tell me how things stand. At times I witnessed the life of a matchstick flame outlast my friends’ lives. At times I watched someone in search of an address in the rain, someone whom as soon as I showed the way, suddenly burst into flames and turned to ashes. How I have consoled everyone that this street shall end, and how they have consoled me that at the end of this street a basket of grapes waits for me. 57 I entrust this absolute love to the pages of the Divan of Hafiz. Until when? I do not know. Until what hour? I cannot tell. Translated by Sholeh Wolpé and Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak ...