Poetry ~ Alireza Abiz 1. Detention The heater was swallowing both our shivers And the jug of gas oil And its smoke in the half-dark cellar Went up to help the spiders A middle-aged man was laughing joyously He had killed his neighbour An old man, fingers trembling, Put a cigarette between yellow teeth While eyeing the teenage boy Who was singing in a sad voice A young man swept slowly He had long fingers And had been brought in drunk from the gutter I had only written on the wall: “Safoora, my darling I’d die for you, my red rose”. 2. The Pressure Gauge Until this moment I had not thought About the pressure gauge across from me But I have thought a lot About Breyten Breytenbach And about his apology for his brilliant poem To which he appended a list Of those who had lost their lives As well as the name of their murderer “Dear Prime Minister, I honestly apologize. Writing that poem was unjustified As was its publication” So, sincerely, to the dictator Apologized Breyten Breytenbach, poet 3. We came out of the café at five We came out of the café at five For a short walk in the street For a short walk in the street We came out of the café at five A man kept shaking his head In the butcher’s on the right In the butcher’s on the right A man kept shaking his head When at 5 they beheaded us We also shook our heads We also shook our heads When at 5 they beheaded us ~ ![]() Photo Credit: Fabrice Gagos Alireza Abiz is an Iranian poet, literary critic and translator based in London. He studied English Literature in Mashhad and Tehran universities and received his PhD in Creative Writing –Poetry from Newcastle University, UK. Abiz has written extensively on Persian contemporary literature and culture. His scholarly book ‘Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Politics and Culture since 1979’ is forthcoming by Bloomsbury. He has so far published five collections of poetry in Persian; ‘Stop! We must get off’, ‘Spaghetti with Mexican sauce’, ‘I can hear a tree from my desk’ “13/1 Koohsangi Street” and ‘Black Line- London Underground’. The latest collection published in 2017 was awarded the most prestigious independent poetry award in Iran, the Shamlou Award. Abiz is also an award-winning translator and has translated some leading English language poets including Basil Bunting, Derek Walcott, Jack Kerouac and C.K. Williams into Persian. English, German and Arabic translations of his poetry have been published in numerous journals and anthologies and have been showcased in public places including Stuttgart Underground in Germany. Abiz’s poetry is deeply rooted in the social and intellectual life of his society. Political struggles of present-day Iran are a recurrent theme as is the narrative of disquiet, detention, torture and conscience. The following poems are translated from Persian by the poet in conversation with W. N. Herbert.
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