Arts and Literature

برگ چغندر

تنها یک روز بعد از نصب مجسمه، شایعات زیادی در شهر پیچید. قیمت همه زمین هائی که سمت دم اسب بود(debajo de la cola de caballo)، ناگهان سقوط کرد. بورس بازان و دلالان زمین شایع کردند که از ماتحت اسب بوهای نامطبوعی متصاعد می شود و همه منطقه زیر دم را مسموم میکند. ظرف تنها 48 ساعت بعد از نصب مجسمه واژه های زیادی وارد ادبیات زبان اسپانیائی شده و آهنگ های مستهجنی ورد زبان همه ساکنان محله بدنام شهر گردید. شهر ناگهان به دو منطقه مهم زیر دم و بالای چشم (منظور چشم اسب) تقسیم ش>>>

Honey

My brother had a girlfriend, the first real girlfriend he had ever had. They had met at the end of his first year of college. He showed me her picture. She was pretty, and everybody was happy for him. Just having her picture in his room made our whole house seem different. I didn't know if it made us more American, but it was exciting to think about. There was a lot happening on television with boyfriends and girlfriends, and it felt like some of that had come into our house>>>

Money

Do you remember
how we first met?
Not being clever
I was clueless, more or less,
of the provenance of things
or what became mine.
>>>

Live Generation

I was only a boy in 1979, but the events that occurred during the overthrow of the Shah would shape how I was educated and would change all our lives almost overnight. When you ask those who lived through the Revolution what it was like, they often will tell you that one day the country was under the Shah’s rule, and the next day we lived under Islamic rule. All bets were off and it was a completely new game. I am often asked by people who are not from the Middle East how the Islamic regime could have taken power, and how they have stayed in power. The answer isn’t a simple one, but one that has many factors involved>>>

و مشتی بنفشه رنگ وفا

میان باغ خاطره ام، سبزه زاری
لطیف
با یک بغل هستی
و مشتی بنفشه
رنگ وفا >>>

Sherlock Holmes Daughter (9)

Fall was approaching and Kataayoon’s next overseas business trip with Paul was only two weeks away. Why couldn’t our romance end some other time of year? I kept thinking. Now every dying leaf, every wistful sunset, would remind me of how much I missed her in my life. Of course, the increasing tenderness in her voice and the escalating admiration in her eyes when she looked at me felt as though she was reciting her wedding vows to me. But her ramping up her fondness for me seemed timed for her upcoming business trip with Paul>>>

شال نارنجی

چه کسی بود که از کوچه پشتی خانه صدایم کرد؟ از روی تخت بلند شدم. پرده را کنار زدم. سرم را بیرون پنجره انداختم تا صاحب صدا را ببینم. گوستاو زودتر از من از پنجره بیرون رفت تا سر و گوشی آب بدهد. گربه هم بی آنکه عجله ای بکند در را باز کرد تا از پله ها پایین برود و برایم خبری تازه از صدا بیاورد. ملافه های شسته شده ام را در حیاط دیدم که باد گرم جزیره به رقص شان در آورده بود>>>

Baaghe bi Bargi

...>>>

عشق واقعی فراتر از دین

بسیاری از ما ایرانیان از کودکی با داستانهای "لیلی و مجنون"، "یوسف و زلیخا" و حتی "رومئو ژولیت" آشنا بوده ایم، اما با برخی از داستانهای ایرانی الاصل آشنایی نداشته و نداریم. برای مثال، من به طور کاملا تصادفی با منظومه "ویس و رامین" آشنا شدم و متوجه شدم که داستانی از ایران باستان است. پس از خواندن منظومه، شروع به کنکاش کردم ومتوجه شدم که این داستان حقیقتا از نظر غالب مردم دور مانده و بسیاری افراد حتی اسم آن را هم نشنیده اند.>>>

The Big Picture and the Small

"Why do we disagree so much?" He laughed.
"Is it funny?" she said.
"The question is funny. Because any two people are going to disagree. By virtue of being two different people."
"We aren't any two people."
"Okay," he said. 'But sometimes it's good to disagree a lot. It shows that we're being honest."
"I don't want to get good at disagreeing with you. I want us to not disagree so much." >>>

Spring Along the Wiese

While I rest near the trees by the river,
Sunshine and shadow play amidst the leaves,
And then my glance perceives fleeting faces
in the ground mist clinging still in darker places.
I cannot move for fear to lose
the image now upon my eye… >>>

The Spill

You welcome the sight
of a beautiful day.
Bright and clear,
no clouds or waves
over or under the ship.
>>>

فوتبال، فقط جام جهانی

آفریقای جام جهانی که
 شیش ملیون سال قبل
در همین مکان شریف،
جدا کرد جناب هومونید
از حضرت شامپانزه حساب، >>>

The World Map

It looked beautiful. I'd heard something about cliffs or rocks over there, and I pictured a canary flying over them, looking down. A lot of places looked beautiful on a map. They looked like mine too. I had been born in Iran and then gone to England and then come to America, and Jeddi's family had come from India to America, so those were special places on a map for us, but there was something about all the places that made them seem like ours, like they were all waiting for us to come there, and they would be ours even if we didn't>>>

Revelation Revealed

Hear me roar...
Can you see me lying on the ground?
Can you feel my pain as my chest asunder?
Can you hear my silent cry?
Can you feel my young heart stopping? >>>

دختر خلف آب

ساناز حرفش را خیلی راحت، روان و طبیعی بیان میدارد، گویی دو پند فروغ را، که دفتر حاضر را نیز به پاس آنچه از فروغ آموخته به او تقدیم کرده، به خوبی به کار بسته است: یکی اینکه شعرت را صادقانه بگو و نه فاضلانه، و دیگر اینکه سعی کن با ریتم کلمات یک حرکت کلی به وجود بیاوری که شنیدنی باشد، یعنی در گوش تبدیل به یک نوع وزن شود. اما راحتی و روانی کلام ساناز باعث میشود که خواننده گاهی از مصرعی به مصرع دیگر بغلتد و جلورود بی آنکه به آنچه خوانده یا شنیده توجهی عمیق و نقادانه نشان دهد>>>

Horse

My father and I took a photograph a long time ago, but someone has cut him off the picture. What remains is the sight of a frightened girl – me -- sitting on a frightened horse. And the rest is only a fantasy. But if I close my eyes, I might recall the missing pieces and I might create that moment again as a whole. We’re surrounded by green waves of the Caspian Sea. The level of the water reaches the animal’s thighs and my feet. An arm (my father’s) holds the harness tight and I’m leaned forward, smiling>>>