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Tuesday July 20
Simin Beh’bahāni (Persian: سیمین بهبهانی) (b. 1927) – Iranian poet – A Cup of Sin: Selected Poems (1999) |
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Read the Wikipedia article for Simin Behbahani
Read about Behbahani’s poetic style
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1051791.html
Read a biography and some of Behbahani’s poems here
Read more poems in the excerpts from
A Cup of Sin: Selected Poems
The Perfume of Coffee and Thoughts of You
My day begins with the perfume of coffee and thoughts of you
scattering desire on moments of joy:
Wakeful, bitter, warm, amusing
Is the nectar I drink from the cup of your eyes.
Like the morning breeze rippling through fields of violets
thoughts of you ripple through my memory at first light.
The mornings when my eyes opened to your presence beside me
were like a snow-covered valley being kissed by the sun.
Oh, I have a new tale for you. The Thousand and Second Tale.
Listen to me, because I am Scheherazade
With my enchantments I have filled each vein
with the gold of a galaxy
to offer the treasure-trove of my heart to love.
My eyes are dazzled by so much love and light
beyond my endurance — oh, heaven help me.
I thought I would bring light to this somber night
with a spark of love.
oh, the fire spreads; oh, it is consuming me.
I was the fireside gypsy who at day’s end
found herself enveloped in a swirling silk of fire.
Watch / listen to Simin Behbahani talk about her life in this 1995 documentary [Farsi language only]
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Listen to the July 20, 2010 LitBirthdays podcast – Simin Behbahani
http://www.lexy.com/feed/episode?id=150924
