Mahmud Kianush

In many of the poems in this collection Kianush says:
"I have tried to see the picture of man's existence in the mirror of his own imagination. What man is said to be, and in so far as the external world stands for it as an evidence, cannot satisfy me in my quest for having an individual feeling of life in relation with the universe. In these poems I have sketched some fleeting visions of my own truth."

I am a Deer;

My hunger for life

Is everlasting

As is the sun's rapture

In burning bright.

Let my journey to oblivion

Pass all the way

Through the pastures of love,

With here and there,

Beyond the reach of lions,

A paradisial repose

By a cool, clear spring,

Lullabies of hands,

Caresses of eyes,

Dreams of new beginnings.

I am a deer,

For life a slave,

And for love a king.

I lived to know

That whatever has a beginning

Will some time end.

A white smile,

And the sun rises.

A sad sigh,

And the moon is full.

Night is the eternal sovereign.

Dandelions are also Flowers;

They shine with the image of the Sun

In the green firmament of Grass;

They are the queens of Light and Beauty,

But they live among the lowly,

Sitting on Soil,

Listening to the healing harp

The Mother Earth plays in her heart,

And the Sun,

The great King of Life,

Smiles at the glory of his own face

In their clear modesty.

The word I gave you

Is not a blade of stone,

Nor a spear of steel,

Nor a nuclear missile.

I found it on the shore of Sunset

Along with some hot kisses of love,

Some cold sighs of despair,

Some sad, unfinished tales,

Some sweet, unending dreams,

And many, many other things.

The word I gave you

Was for a long time

Planted in my heart,

And only this evening it blossomed.

Pray look after it with hope

Until I come again

With a new language

At a new Sunrise.