Nadia Anjuman

trans. by Diana Arterian & MArina Omar

One Small Kindness

ghazal

We have revered the sun for some time—but now
we lament its daily brightness

Sunlight is the painter of burning fields
We’re glad for black nights

Of course we fear fading to yellow—
we’re used to green foothills

Time has passed with no clouds
We bear brands on our hearts from that fiery loss

This is not to say everything has to be an ocean—
we’re content with just one creek

The cloud and sun are neighbors
We can ask it for this one small kindness

The river entreats the cloud to hurry
We have a responsibility, she says

The people came to me, pleading for your help
We’re friends—they all know this

We’re what the people watch for
We must answer their call—don’t forget

Qaws 1380 / Saggitarius 2001

Diana Arterian is the author of Playing Monster :: Seiche (1913 Press, 2017) and the chapbooks With Lightness & Darkness (Essay Press, 2017) and Death Centos (Ugly Duckling, 2013). She is co-editor of Among Margins: Critical & Lyrical Writing on Aesthetics (Ricochet, 2016) and a poetry editor at Noemi Press. Her poetry, essays, and translations have been recently featured in Denver Quarterly, the New York Times Book Review, the Poetry Foundation website, and Poet Lore.

Nadia Anjuman was born in Herat, Afghanistan. She published her first poetry collection گل دودی / Gul-e-Dodi in 2001 at the age of twenty-one. Anjuman’s second volume, یک سبد دلهره / Yek Sàbad Délhoreh, was published in 2006. In 2005, Anjuman’s husband beat her and she ultimately died from the assault. Her first volume گل دودی / Gul-e-Dodi has been reprinted three times and sold over three thousand copies, finding readers in Iran, France, Pakistan, and beyond.