Azita Ghahreman

What I Have Been

All men and women that I have been
Those sleeps that have seen my dreams
Your dreams that I have lived
The grief that has survived for me to cry
Ballads, winds, secret songs
That have roamed here
In my times…
All women that I have been
In the drowned ruins
The signs displaced by wind
Your eyes and the countless faces
Your countenance and my eyes
All bodies that you have been
Pine trees, stones, and doves
All the snow that I have been
The seas that have whirled in you
Someone else’s roads and my feet
Someone else’s feet and your roads;
All the songs that I have sung
With your mouth
On the all faces of men and women that I have been.

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• Azita Ghahreman
  Translations by Sohrab Rahimi and Azita Ghahreman