نبش یک قبر – شعری از مجید نفیسی

Uncovering a Grave

by

Majid Naficy

Has a corpse been buried

In this lonely room?

The clock struck eight times

As it always does Tuesday nights

When I am home alone.

Has a corpse been buried here?

If not, what is this rush of terror

Ripping all of my veins and skin?

If not, what is this darkness,

This ambiguity in every corner

Screaming in silence?

If not, what is this grave within me 

Which I want to uncover?

I push the soil aside.

An oil lamp shines.

Come here, Muslim boy!

Come here, Muslim boy!

Every one of “them” shows me a sugar almond.

Woe! When I go toward one

He wants to pierce my body

With a sharp syringe

And extract my blood.

I am sitting alone in a car.

I see the face of a peddler woman

Behind the glass window

With a nose that becomes wider every moment

With teeth sharp, sharp.

She wants to open the door.

Woe if she puts me in her basket

And carries me to extract my fat!

I want to search every thing

I want to be every where

In the corner of that wardrobe

Beneath that cupboard

Inside that walk-in closet.

Perhaps my mother had seen this corpse

Or God, my nurse Zahra!

On a stormy night

She had put her hand near my ear

So that no one overheared her  whisper:

“Here they have chopped someone’s head

Here they have hanged someone

Here they have strangled someone.”

I want to shout:

“My nurse, Zahra!

Did you pass this corpse to me?

Who gave it to you?”

I squint with fear 

And my whole body freezes .

Did Smokie the madman

Stab me with a dagger

On the bank of Zayandeh River once?

Did Hassan the woodcutter

Cut me into two halves

In Habib Grove once? 

Did they chew my flesh

Under their teeth?

If not, why does this lonely room

Testify as such

At eight o’clock on Tuesday nights

When I am home alone?

        January 21, 1986