Salty Fish ماهي شور

by Hafizullah Shariati Sahar

January 19, 2022

Artwork by M Faizi. M Faizi is a painter, designer and teacher. She holds a History degree from Balkh University.

Salty Fish

I become a bitter fish

in your river

you discard me

I become a sweet fish

in your stream

you roast me

I become a salty fish

in the small pool of your house

so you can neither discard me

nor keep me

ماهي شور

ماهي تلخي مي⁬شوم

درون رودخانه⁬ات

بيرونم مي‌اندازي

ماهي شيريني مي⁬شوم

درون چشمه⁬ات

كبابم مي⁬كني

ماهي شوري مي⁬شوم

درون حوض خانه⁬ات

كه نه بیرونم بيندازي

.و نه نگهم داري

Translated from Persian by Sassan Tabatabai. Sassan Tabatabai is a poet, translator, and scholar of medieval Persian literature. He is Coordinator of the Persian Language Program at Boston University.

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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.