Seeing you is reading a love poem

I am the lilies that in your hair reside
On the walls of your church
I am the image of Christ crucified

I am a book on your bookshelves
A whippoorwill on your shoulder
I am anklets around your calves

I am a holyman meditating before an icon
Of a Buddha belonging to a woman
Who in my eyes has been broken

Make me again whole
With a kiss, with love
Help me reach my goal
Until a kiss, until love

toward a mirage you are a doorway
like a soothing ointment, like a poem
but you are agony! You are agony!

You are a robin full of spring
Like a gramophone record
Loud and clear, with no skipping

But the glint of a razor in your eyes resemble
Something two-faced, something treacherous
Like a bullet in the temple

Make me again whole
With a kiss, with love
Help me reach my goal
Until a kiss, until love

-- Originally in Persian by Yaghma Golrooey, translated by Buna.