Love Plays Behind the Veil
Fakhr al-Din Iraqiعراقی
عشق در پرده می‌نوازد ساز
Love plays its instrument behind the veil;
عاشقی کو که بشنود آواز؟
where is a lover to hear the sound?
هر نفس پرده‌ایدگر سازد
At every breath it tunes another mode;
هر زمان زخمه‌ای کند آغاز
every moment it begins another stroke.
همه عالم صدای نغمه اوست
The whole world is the echo of its melody;
که شنید این چنین صدای دراز؟
who ever heard so long an echo?
راز او از جهان برون افتاد
Its secret has spilled out of the world;
خود صدا کی نگاه دارد راز؟
how could an echo keep a secret?
سر او از زبان هر ذره
Its secret, from the tongue of every atom,
خود تو بشنو که من نیم غماز
hear for yourself, for I am no telltale.
A note for readers
Verse from the opening of the Lama’at, ‘Flashes’, Iraqi’s short book on love in prose and verse. Love is the one musician of the world: parda means both a veil and a musical mode, so love plays ‘behind the veil’ and changes its mode at every breath, and the whole world is its echo.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.