Translated from the Persian by Ali Zarrin
Parmida,
You were late!
I fell to earth.
The wind was blowing from all around,
but the torn pieces of my shirt
were waving toward your homesickness.
You came so late, Parmida!
My face and hair have turned so white
and my shoulders have sunken–
as if I have been waiting
for you in all the terminals of the world;
as though my shoulders
have wept in all the stations of the world!
Three autumns ago
when my hands were not yet trembling
I wrote on the same plane tree
That on a rainy day you carved the letter N of my name:
“Parmida, you were too late!
I fell
to the ground
waiting!”
