Beyond The Sea, a poem by Sohrab Sepehri
I will build a boat,
I will cast it in the water,
I will sail away from this strange land,
Where no one in the grove of love,
awakens the heroes.
A boat void of nets,
And a heart void of longing for pearls
I will continue to sail.
Neither will I lose my heart to things that are blue
Nor to the mermaids emerging from the sand
That cast seduction from their locks
On the illuminated solitude of the fishermen.
I will continue to sail.
I will continue to sing:
“One must go faraway, faraway.”
The man of that city had no myths
The woman of that city was not brimful like a cluster of grapes.
No hall of mirrors reprise raptures.
A puddle of water, did not even reflect the light from a torch.
The night has sung it’s anthem,
Now it is the window’s turn to open.
I will continue to sing.
I will continue to sail.
Beyond the seas there is a city,
In which it’s windows open to epiphany,
The rooftops are the domain of pigeons that gaze at the fountain of human intelligence.
The hand of each ten year old child in the city, is endowed with the house of knowledge.
The people in that city look at a clay wall,
As though, it is a flame, a tender sleep.
The earth hears the music of your senses,
And the fluttering sound of the wings of mythical birds are heard in the wind.
Beyond the seas there is a city,
Where the sun is as vast as the eyes of the early morning risers.
The poets are the inheritors of water, wisdom and illumination.
Beyond the seas there is a city!
One must build a boat.
persianbanoo 