پدر پدران – بیست‌و‌یک شعر برای پدرم / مجید نفیسی (۱۷)

The Father of Fathers

Twenty-One Poems for My Father

Seventeen.

Death in the Sea

By Majid Naficy

My ancestor, Abu-Torab*

Was the father of earth

But he joined the water

And became part of the sea.

His last trip was to Mecca.

On return, he took a ship

To carry himself to Bushehr

But then became sick.

The sailors laid his feverish body

Toward the sky.

And for the last time

His eyes followed the star

Showing him the way home.

Then a man prayed for him,

The sailors surrendered his body to waves,

The fish of warm waters

Circled around him

And his co-traveler brought

His books back home.

In the library of my father

I’ve seen a book by his grandfather

With a black leather jacket

On “Free Will and Determinism”

And thought to myself

If he had returned from the desert

Perhaps he would have joined the earth.

July 19, 2013

* This name literally means “the father of the earth” in Arabic.

Poems

۱: Sword at the Ablution Pool, ۲:  In Temescal Canyon, ۳: Red earmuffs, ۴: Three Gifts, ۵:  Forgetfulness, ۶: That Hitler Moustache, ۷: Baghbaderan Wine, ۸: The Night, ۹: Visiting the Moon, ۱۰: Secret, ۱۱:  A Red Rose for My Father, ۱۲: The Soul Bird of Father, ۱۳: In the Name of Father, ۱۴: Magic Lantern, ۱۵: The Family Koran, ۱۶: Khomeini’s Visit, ۱۷: Death in the Sea, ۱۸: Stomach Ulcer