Ziba Shirazi, Woman (زن)

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Multiple Personality Disorder
by Multiple Personality Disorder
05-Sep-2011
 

Ziba Shirazi is an Iranian-American writer, poet, singer and storyteller.  She will be performing live at Oak Theater in Berkeley, California on Sunday, September 11, 2011.  For more information about this event, please see: Ziba Shirazi: A Night of Story & Song.

The following is my English translation of one of her poems called "Woman" (زن).

زن

من منم، من یک زنم، آزادگی پیراهنم

عشوه از پا تا سرم لیکن ز سنگم، آهنم
من منم، من مادرم، دوستم، رفیقم، همسرم
شیرهء جانت ز من، چادر مینداز بر سرم
تاب گیسویم سرابی بیش نیست
نقشِ بیهوده بر آبی بیش نیست
وین لبِ لعل و حدیث چشمِ مست
بر لبِ مستِ خرابی بیش نیست
وصف ابروی کمان و تیرِ مژگانِ سیاه
حربه و ابزارِ جنگ شعر نابی بیش نیست

Woman

I am me, a woman; freedom is what I wear
Coquetry from my head to my toes, but made of rock and steel
I am me, a woman, comrade, friend, wife; I am a mother
O!  You, who I fed, don't dare throw veil on my head
Sway of my hair is none but an illusion,
none, but a vain image on the water
And these ruby lips, and these proffers of intoxicating eyes, 
is none, but on the lips of the drunken ills
And these accounts of bowed brows and blackened eyelash arrows,
is none, but tools and weapons of limpid poetry wars

 


من منم، من یک زنم، عطرِ هوس دارد تنم
نطفهء هستی درم از جان و از دل می‌تنم
روبهک!  من شیرزنم، خاموش تو، من روشنم
با سلاحِ دین دگر آتش مزن بر خرمنم
تا بدانی چیست جان و جوهرم
دستی انداز و تو دریاب گوهرم
نیمهء تنها!  مرا ز خود بدان
من برابر ا تو، جنسِ دیرم
بال و پر بگشا کاندر راهء عشق
بالِ پرواز گر توئی من شهپرم

I am me, a woman; my figure bears fragrance of joyful delight
Spark of life is within me, spawning with soul and spirit
O!  You, the little fox!  I am a lioness; you are darkness; I am the light
With means of divinity, don’t set my fruition on fire, don’t!
Thus you’d know my life and soul,
extend a hand and aim to understand my role
O!  You, the bitter piece!  Except me as one with yours
I am of a different kind, but equal one with yours
Open your wings, and feathers, such is in the way of love,
and as such, I am the remex, if you are the wing of flight
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yolanda

........

by yolanda on

Hi! MPD,

    Thank you for your blog. The lady has a facebook website and your blog is posted there...34 people have posted your blog on facebook, Yeah! She has close to 4000 friends there......her videos on you-tube have a lot of hits. Her style reminds me more of country music than jazz....as you know, country singers like to tell stories thru the singing, they like to talk about love, infidelity, and booze thru their songs.......of course, Ziba has different stories to tell. Wow! She is named after the city of poets and literature; she is a poetess herself!

The second half of the poem sounds feminist to certain extent......I hope her concert has a great turnout!

Thank you for your great translation! I am so glad that Boosboos is gone and you are back! Thank you for reclaiming the territory for IC!


Multiple Personality Disorder

Thank you for finding this great video

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

Yolanda,

I was trying to find a video clip that contained the entire poem, some of them only had the first half of the poem.  The video clip you found is great.  Thank you.


yolanda

...............

by yolanda on

Hi MPD,

    Thank you for translating this great song. Thank you for bringing back sanity to IC! Here is the studio version of the song, I will be back later, I just started working, OMG! It is so stressful!