POETRY

Let it fill you as if you were a chia pot

And grow like fragrant watercress

Out of your hands.

The New Year will come,[1]

And you will sit

At the cloth of the "seven s's".

You will look in the mirror

And along with the red goldfish

You will be freed

From the confines of the fishbowl.

And you will pass

From the lonely ash tree,

The stately hyacinth,

The anxious garlic,

The drunken vinegar,

And the happy silver coin.

And along with the bard of Shirâz[2]

You will be filled with the sound of love.

And so, why be sad?

When the Thirteenth Day comes

You'll go with the flowing water

And speak to the sky and the earth

Of the beautiful moments of love.

Majid Naficy
July 28, 1995

[1] On the Persian New Year, the first day of spring, it is traditional to spread on a cloth seven items, the names of which all begin with the letter sin ("s").  These "seven s's" are typically ash tree, hyacinth, garlic, vinegar, a coin, sprouts (wheat, watercress, or other), and sumac.  Other items put on the cloth (not beginning with sin) are a goldfish (in a fishbowl), a mirror, and either a Koran or a copy of Hâfez's collected poems.  Thirteen days later, people must go hiking and cast their sprouts into a stream.

[2] An allusion to a verse of Hâfez, the fourteenth century Persian lyricist.