Poem: No Longer Alone
By Ahmad Shamlu
A dove on my shoulder
sips water from your lips.
That dove on my shoulder restores my voice.
A caring, stunning fowl that speaks from my shoulder
of light and of man – that living god of all idols…
In starlit eternity I walk with man.
At high noon, truth quakes in the street
a man falls on the pavement
Inside the house, a woman cries,
a child smiles In the cradle…
Man is the mortar that binds with truth.
Man is the twin of eternity –
I am intimate with eternity.
Novelty sings beneath the stone walls of dungeons.
The glow-worm’s dim light reflects in the eyes
of mutant dolls – and my town
Rediscovers the choreography
of its alleys…
Nowhere, ever, the scream of life is left
With no answer.
I listen to distant calls and from afar
men listen to my calls – I am alive.
My scream is not left unanswered –
your caring heart is the answer.
My bird with the golden voice
frolics in the foliage of your house, my beloved,
put on your fine garments –
love favors us.
With you, I pursue my dreams, wide awake.
I find the poem in the veracity
of your brow’s vigor.
You speak to me of light and of man –
parent to all idols…
With you, at the dawn of my dreams,
I am no longer alone.
Translated by Tatul Sonentz Papazian
