پدر پدران – بیست‌و‌یک شعر برای پدرم / مجید نفیسی (۵)

The Father of Fathers

        Twenty-One Poems for My Father

Five.

Forgetfulness  

        By Majid Naficy

For a long time the wind

Has scattered my notebook.

In vain I run after every leaf

And put a clod of earth on each one.

Memories empty me

And a heavy mist

Covers my signs.

My forefathers were physicians for seven generations.

Nafis son of Evaz went from Kerman to Samarkand

To serve in the court of Ulugh Beg.

My father was a village doctor in Pudeh.

I went to Tehran to study medicine

And practice in Isfahan.

Now at the end of this path

I have become a patient myself.

Every morning, as was my routine before,

I shave and put on clothes

To go visiting my patients.

But my lady wants me to stay home

And, instead, write my memoir.

Will love save me?

I remember her at the time of our engagement.

She caught typhoid and was close to death.

At that time, I was a medical draftee.

Once I came to her bed.

Behind the window, cherry blossoms

Were gently dancing with the wind.

Her eyes were closed.

I held her hand and for the first time

Kissed her fingers.

        May 19, 1996  

۱: Sword at the Ablution Pool, ۲:  In Temescal Canyon, ۳: Red earmuffs, ۴: Three Gifts, ۵:  Forgetfulness