I Will Greet the Sun Again by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad

Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad

As I was reading Forough Farrokzad’s poems to an audience at the Jefferson Market Library in NYC last Saturday afternoon, it occurred to me that in this particular moment the courage of the women (and girls) in the streets of Iran is very much aligned with Farrokhzad’s energy, ambition, and insistence on the absolute personal freedom she claimed for herself. Farrokhzad, whose works were banned after the Revolution, remains an icon to women and artists in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora. I chose this poem from her selection because she speaks so specifically about her hair, the cascading of it, its freedom and lushness…

—Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.

I Will Greet the Sun Again

I will greet the sun again
I will greet
the stream that flowed in me
the clouds that were my long thoughts
the painful growth of the aspens in the garden
who passed with me through the dry seasons
I will greet the flock of crows
who brought me the scent of the fields at night
as a gift
I will greet my mother who lived in the mirror
and was the reflection of my old age
and greet the earth again
whose throbbing interior, with my chronic lust
I have stuffed with green seeds

I will come, I will come, I will come
with my glossy hair: rich with the scents of turned-up soil
with my eyes: experiences of thick darkness
with bushes I have picked from the grove on the other side of the wall
I will come, I will come, I will come
and the threshold will be filled with love
and on the threshold
I will greet those who love again
and the girl still standing there
on the love-filled threshold

—Forough Farrokhzad

Published