Algae Between My Fingers - Poem by Rosa Jamali

A shortcut to an unknown spot (a crime that I've revealed)

With your permission
We'll assess whether this unknown sign is correct
the crime that I've revealed
they've exiled me to an unknown spot
and it's no distance from being underground*

Speak, say something, confess!
I came into the world on the day you stroked my shroud
my constant entertainment was a dark loophole
my evidence a page from my sister's identity card
they ascertain the strength of gravity the moment a stone
doesn't sink in water
Speak, say something, confess!
the crime that I've revealed

The crime that I've revealed

That's great!
I don't know if it's four o'clock or five
if today's Thursday or Friday
if it's October or November
if it's winter or autumn
minutes are halted, forbidden
I'm guilty of murdering someone
it's not the first time
it's not the last time
it's the thousandth time they've put me in prison
I have thirty seconds
for years my shadow has followed your shadow
my hair is a tangled spider's web
there's algae between my fingers
I won't look into your pupils any more
you've spilled cold milk on my bones
you've shot a volley of bullets into my pupils
for thirty five days I've been in love with corpses
though this is an inaccurate account
That's great!
his eyeballs are cloudy with pneumonia
my breasts feel crushed
they give me a blind man's stick
and looking at the calendar is forbidden
That's great!
A woman is screaming, vertical and horizontal, at eighty degrees on the clock
from the welts the stick makes
a woman is screaming round the clock
a woman is screaming, a few seconds, a moment of surrender, it's ninety degrees
a woman is screaming and the gashes and a wall-clock, one hundred and eighty degrees
a woman is screaming / it's half past midnight/ the circle's complete
it's three hundred and sixty degrees

a revolver's diagonal shape on the wall
the smell of blood's sent me crazy
Speak, say something, confess!
it looks like bad weather's coming
the world is a short woman who's been slashed down
Speak, say something, confess!
they've exiled me to an unknown spot
a slab of rubble drops into water
and it's no distance from being underground*

a woman is screaming …
a woman is screaming …
a woman is screaming …



This piece which is an excerpt from a long verse drama has been translated by Dick Davis; British Acclaimed poet & translator of Ferdowsi(The Book Of Kings) / TRANSLATED FROM ORIGINAL PERSIAN