Garous Abdolmalekian

trans. by Idra Novey and Ahmad Nadalizadeh

Poem For Stillness

He stirs his tea with a gun barrel
He solves the puzzle with a gun barrel
He scratches his thoughts with a  gun barrel

And sometimes 
he sits facing himself
and pulls bullet-memories
out of his brain

He’s fought in many wars
but is no match for his own despair

These white pills
have left him so colorless
his shadow must stand up
to fetch him water

We ought to accept
that no soldier
has ever returned
from war
alive

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.