Despairs of the City بغض‌هاي شهر

by Hafizullah Shariati Sahar

February 16, 2022

When you sit next to me

You lick my hair

Like a domestic deer

And I get lost in the leisure of watching you

And cover your unfamiliar lips

Under the rain of my lips

And you in the boredom of the night’s dreams

Invite the city to sleep

When the despairs of the world have taken over the city

And I remain like a farmer

Whose crops have been grazed by hungry deer

بغض‌هاي شهر

كنارم كه مي‌نشيني

چون گوزن خانه⁬گي

بر موهايم ليس مي‌زني

و من در مجال تماشايت گم مي‌شوم

و لبان نامأنوست را

در باران لبانم چتر مي‌گيرم

و تو در كسالت رؤيا‌هاي شبانه

شهر را به بستر خواب مي‌خواني

هنگامي‌كه بغض‌هاي جهان بر شهر پلاسيده‌اند

و من به دهقاني مي‌مانم

كه كشت‌زارانش را

شبانه

.آهوان گرسنه چريده‌اند

Translated from Persian by Tayler Hall and Erfan Dana. Hall studies Human Physiology and Persian Cultural Studies at Boston University. Dana is a Hazara writer from Afghanistan and an Editor at the archipelago.

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Hafizullah Shariati Sahar

Dr Hafizullah Shariati (Sahar) has been a professor at Ibin-Sina University, Goharshad, Rabia Balkhi, Khatib and Gharjestan in Kabul, Afghanistan. He holds a PhD in literature and linguistics, his doctoral dissertation is the first serious linguistic study of the Hazaragi dialect. For more than twenty years, he has been composing poetry, translating poetry, and studying the literary, cultural, social, and oral culture of the people. Dr Shariati is familiar with Persian, English, Norwegian, Urdu, Arabic and Pashto. He is a colleague of Marefat High School, the managing director of Radio Marefat and a colleague of Radio Neda and Radio Farhang, a member of the editorial board of "Contemporary Literature" and "Farkhar" quarterly. He has been the editor of "Simorgh" weekly, the managing director of "Kara" weekly and "Civil Discourse" quarterly.