بیلی هالیدی* – شعری از مجید نفیسی

Billie Holiday

by

Majid Naficy

Oh Billie, I dance with you.

Holding your waist with my hand

I circle around on tiptoe.

Your playful rhythm leaks into my veins

And the salt of your skin sinks into my blood.

The sea is far but I hear its sound

The sea is big but fits in my body.

Let us cast off our shoes

And step on its sandy carpet.

Little waves grab our feet

and draw us toward green waters.

Oh Billie, I dance with you

Holding the hem of your long skirt

I walk gently on the skin of the sea.

A wandering wind wraps around our bodies

And an albatross opens its wings on our shoulders.

There, across the sea is the land of my childhood

With fragile trees that like the tips of your fingers

Are now growing all over my skin.

The sea is borderless but beats in my heart

The earth is vast but fits into my skull.

Tonight no border can separate you from me.

But… suddenly my hand lets go of the radio antenna.

The blues singer begins to whine.

Ah, my dance partner is not imaginary!

I hold her waist as before.

Her velvet voice rises again

And takes me back to the nightly dance.

                              February 28, 2001