Garous Abdolmalekian

trans. by Idra Novey and Ahmad Nadalizadeh

On Power Lines

So translucent are we today
that our inner murderers have turned obvious.

And the sea of our city is so sluggish
that spiders weave their cobwebs over its waves.

If only someone would turn these snakes into rods
If only the one who gnawed at my bones
did not now my poems by heart.

We have driven the bees 
to make honey from poisonous flowers
And the sparrows that perched for years on the power lines
fears the branches of the trees.

Tell me how to manage my smile
when they have planted land mines all around my lips.

We are the discoverers of dead-end alleys
We have exhausted many a word
This time
send us a prophet who only listens.

You can read more of Garous Abdolmalekian’s work in the print edition of The Arkansas International 8.

Garous Abdolmalekian is the author of five books of poetry. He has won the Karnameh Poetry Book of the Year Award and the Iranian Youth Poetry Book Prize, and is the editor of the poetry section at Cheshmeh Publications in Tehran.

Ahmad Nadalizadeh is currently a PhD student of comparative literature at the University of Oregon. He received his MA in English literature from the University of Tehran.

Idra Novey is the award-winning author of the novel Ways to Disappear. Her work has been translated into ten languages and she's translated numerous authors from Spanish and Portuguese, most recently Clarice Lispector. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.