The house is black

There is no shortage of ugliness in the world.
If man closed his eyes to it, there would be even more.
But man is a problem solver.
On this screen will appear an image of ugliness…
a vision of pain no caring human being should ignore.
To wipe out this ugliness and to relieve the victims…
is the motive of this film and the hope of its makers.
I thank you, God…
for creating me,
I thank you, God…
for creating my caring mother, my […] father
I thank you, God for […]ng the flowing water and the fruiting trees.
I thank you for giving me hands to work with
I thank you for giving me eyes…
to see the marvels of this world.
I thank you for giving me ears
to enjoy beautiful songs.
I thank you for giving me feet…
to go wherever I will.
Who is this in hell praising you, O Lord?
Who is this in hell?
Saturday…
Sunday…
Monday…
Tuesday…
Wednesday…
Thursday…
Friday…
Saturday…
I will sing your name, O Lord
I will sing your name with the ten-string lute.
For I have been made in a strange and frightening shape.
My bones were not hidden from you when I was being created,
I was molded in the bowels of the earth.
In your book all my party have been written…
and your eyes, O Lord, have seen my fetus.
I won’t see the spring.
These lines are all that will remain.
As the heavens circles, I fell into the bedlam.
I’m gone.
My heart is filled with sorrow.
O Muslims, I am sad tonight.
Leprosy is chronic and contagious.
Leprosy is not hereditary,
Leprosy can be anywhere or everywhere
Leprosy goes with poverty
Upon attacking the body
It deepens and enlarges wrinkles…
eats away the tissues, covers the nerves with a dry shield,
dulls sensitivity to heat and touch,
causes blindness,
destroys the nasal septum,
it finds its way to the liver and bone marrow,
withers the fingers,
it clears the way for other diseases.
Leprosy is not incurable.
Taking care of lepers stops the disease from spreading.
Wherever lepers have been adequately cared for…
the disease has vanished.
When the leper is cared for early he can be treated completely
Leprosy is not incurable
God is the Greatest. O God, the Great Lord,
the Generous, thou bestow thy kindness on our supplication.
thou art the Supreme over men and ghosts. In the name of God…
the Clement, the Caring. In the name of God and from God and by God.
I submit my being to you, O God, and turn my face towards…
thine and leave my affairs to thy command. I leave my fate between…
Your hands, my left and my right, my north and my south,
my sides and my destiny. All to thy command and power
as there is no turning and no power. except from God,
I said if I had wings of a dove…
I would fly away and be at rest.
I would go far away and take refuge in the desert.
I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
For I have seen misery and wickedness on earth.
The universe is pregnant with inertia
and has given birth to time.
Where would I escape from your face?
And where would I go from your presence?
If I hang on to the wings of the morning breeze
And reside in the deep of the sea,
Your hand will still weigh on me.
You have made me drunk with indecision.
How awesome are your deeds!
How awesome are your deeds!
I speak of the bitterness of my soul.
I speak of the bitterness of my soul.
When I was silent, my life was rotting
from my silent screams all day long.
Remember that my life is wind.
I have become the pelican of the desert,
the owl of the ruins,
and like a sparrow, I am sitting alone on the roof.
I am poured out like water…
as those who have long been dead. 
On my eyelids is the shadow of death. 
Leave me, leave me, for my days are but a breath.
Leave me before I set out for the land of no return,
the land of infinite darkness.
O God, don’t entrust the life of your dove to the wild beast.
O God, remember my life is wind…
and you have given me a time of idleness,
and around me the song of happiness,
the sound of the windmill, and the brightness…
of the light have vanished
Lucky are those who are harvesting now,
and their hands are picking sheaves of wheat.
Let’s listen to the soul who sings in the remote desert.
The one who sighs and stretches his hands out saying,
“Alas, my wounds have numbed my spirit.“
O, the time-forgotten one,
dressing yoourself [sic] in red, and wearing golden ornaments,
anointing your eyes with kohl,
remember you have made yourself beautiful in vain,
for a song in the remote desert,
and your friends who have denigrated you
Alas, for the day is fading, the evening shadows are stretching.
Our being, like a cage full of birds,
is filled with moans of captivity.
And none among us knows how long he will last.
The harvest season passed, the summer season came to an end,
and we did not find deliverance.
Like doves we cry for justice… and there is none.
 




We wait for light and darkness reigns.
Venus. Sometimes at twilight we see a bright star.
The name of it is Venus.
Venus is very bright.
The planet Venus is very close to us.
The planet of Venus doesn’t twinkle.
Why should we thank God for having a father and mother?
You answer.
I don’t know, I have neither.
You name a few beautiful things.
The moon, the sun, flowers, playtime.
And you, name a few ugly things.
Hand.
foot…head,
Write a sentence with the word “house“ in it.
LEPER COLONY
The house is black.
O overruning river driven by the force of love,
flow to us, flow to us.
 

Made in fall 1962 for the Society For Assisting Lepers by Gulistan Film Co
Cinematography: Soleyman Minasian
Sound: Mahmud Hangval & Samad Poorkamali
Assistants: Herand Minasian & Amir Karrari
Produced by Ebrahim Gulistan
Edited and directed by Forough Farrokhzad

Forough Farrokhzad (29 December 1934 – 13 February 1967)

Another Birth

Forough Farrokhzad (29 December 1934 – 13 February 1967)


Another Birth

Translations by Ismā'il Salāmi

My entire soul is a murky verse
Reiterating you within itself
Carrying you to the dawn of eternal burstings and blossomings

In this verse, I sighed you, AH!
In this verse,
I grafted you to trees, water and fire

Perhaps life is
A long street along which a woman
With a basket passes every day
Perhaps life
Is a rope with which a man hangs himself from a branch
Perhaps life is a child returning home from school
Perhaps life is the lighting of a cigarette
Between the lethargic intervals of two lovemakings
Or the puzzled passage of a passerby
Tipping his hat
Saying good morning to another passerby with a vacant smile
Perhaps life is that blocked moment
When my look destroys itself in the pupils of your eyes
And in this there is a sense
Which I will mingle with the perception of the moon
And the reception of darkness

In a room the size of one solitude
My heart
The size of one love
Looks at the simple pretexts of its own happiness,

At the pretty withering of flowers in the flower pots
At the sapling you planted in our flowerbed
At the songs of the canaries
Who sing the size of one window.

Ah
This is my lot
This is my lot
My lot
Is a sky, which the dropping of a curtain seizes from me
My lot is going down an abandoned stairway
And joining with something in decay and nostalgia
My lot is a cheerless walk in the garden of memories
And dying in the sorrow of a voice that tells me:
"I love
Your hands"
I will plant my hands in the flowerbed
I will sprout, I know, I know, I know
And the sparrows will lay eggs
In the hollows of my inky fingers
I will hang a pair of earrings of red twin cherries
Round my ears
I will put dahlia petals on my nails

There is an alley
Where the boys who were once in love with me,
With those disheveled hairs, thin necks and gaunt legs
Still think of the innocent smiles of a little girl
Who was one night blown away by the wind
There is an alley which my heart
Has stolen from places of my childhood

The journey of a volume along the line of time
And impregnating the barren line of time with a volume
A volume conscious of an image
Returning from the feast of a mirror

This is the way
Someone dies
And someone remains
No fisherman will catch pearls
From a little stream flowing into a ditch

I
Know a sad little mermaid
Dwelling in the ocean
Softly, gently blowing
Her heart into a wooden flute
A sad little mermaid
Who dies with a kiss at night
And is born again with another kiss at dawn


Forough Farrokhzad (29 December 1934 – 13 February 1967)

The Conquest of the Garden

That crow which flew over our heads
and descended into the disturbed thought
of a vagabond cloud
and the sound of which traversed
the breadth of the horizon
like a short spear
will carry the news of us to the city.
Everyone knows,
everyone knows
that you and I have seen the garden
from that cold sullen window
and that we have plucked the apple
from that playful, hard-to-reach branch.
Everyone is afraid
everyone is afraid, but you and I
joined with the lamp
and water and mirror and we were not afraid.
I am not talking about the flimsy linking
of two names
and embracing in the old pages of a ledger.
I'm talking about my fortunate tresses
with the burnt anemone of your kiss
and the intimacy of our bodies,
and the glow of our nakedness
like fish scales in the water.
I am talking about the silvery life of a song
which a small fountain sings at dawn.
we asked wild rabbits one night
in that green flowing forest
and shells full of pearls
in that turbulent cold blooded sea
and the young eagles
on that strange overwhelming mountain
what should be done.
Everyone knows,
everyone knows
we have found our way
Into the cold, quiet dream of phoenixes:
we found truth in the garden
In the embarrassed look of a nameless flower,
and we found permanence
In an endless moment
when two suns stared at each other.
I am not talking about timorous whispering
In the dark.
I am talking about daytime and open windows
and fresh air and a stove in which useless things burn
and land which is fertile
with a different planting
and birth and evolution and pride.
I am talking about our loving hands
which have built across nights a bridge
of the message of perfume
and light and breeze.
come to the meadow
to the grand meadow
and call me, from behind the breaths
of silk-tasseled acacias
just like the deer calls its mate.
The curtains are full of hidden anger
and innocent doves
look to the ground
from their towering white heigh

From forughfarrokhzad.org

Forough Farrokhzad (29 December 1934 – 13 February 1967)

My silent Friday

Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967)

My silent Friday,

My deserted Friday,

My Friday: sad, like old abandoned lanes.

My Friday:

The cold day of ailing, idle thoughts,

Moist day of long, evil bore,

loaded with grief,

grief for my faith, for my hope,

Oh, my Friday, this renouncing day

…

Oh, this empty room,

Oh, this gloomy house…

These isolating walls from attacks of youth,

These collapsing roofs on my slight daydream of light,

In this place of lone, reflection and doubt,

In this space of shade, text, image and sign.

My life, like a mysterious river,

streamed into those silent, deserted days,

so calmly with a lot of pride.

My life, like a mysterious river,

Streamed into those empty, gloomy rooms,

so calmly with a lot of pride.

Translation: Maryam Dilmaghani From the website Forough Farrokhzad The Sad Little Fairy

To my Sister

To my sister

Sister, rise up after your freedom,
why are you quiet?
rise up because henceforth
you have to imbibe the blood of tyrannical men.

Seek your rights, Sister,
from those who keep you weak,
from those whose myriad tricks and schemes
keep you seated in a corner of the house.

How long will you be the object of pleasure
In the harem of men's lust?
how long will you bow your proud head at his feet
like a benighted servant?

How long for the sake of a morsel of bread,
will you keep becoming an aged haji's temporary wife,
seeing second and third rival wives.
oppression and cruelty, my sister, for how long?

This angry moan of yours
must surly become a clamorous scream.
you must tear apart this heavy bond
so that your life might be free.

Rise up and uproot the roots of oppression.
give comfort to your bleeding heart.
for the sake of your freedom, strive
to change the law, rise up.
Forough Farrokhzad 29.12.1934 - 13.02.1967