A Poem Which Is Life by Ahmad Shamlu
The theme of former poets
Was not about life
In the arid sky of his dreams
He would talk
But only with wine and his imaginary beloved
He was in his own dreams night and day
Chained in his beloved’s funny hair
While others
With the cup of real wine in one hand
And the long hair of their real beloved in another
Would sing on the land of God inebriated!
His work could affect no one
Since the theme of his poem was not but this:
It could not be used as a drill
And in the paths of people’s life struggles
No heavy rocks could be broken away by such a tool
His presence was good for none
And his life or death would bring no change
It couldn’t be used as gallows
Whereas I, with the help of my poems,
Have fought once
Side by side of the Korean Shen Chu
And once, in many years ago,
I hanged the poet ‘Hamidi’
On the gallows of my poems!
The theme of poems
Today
Is different
Today
Poems are tools
In people’s hands
Since the poets are branches of
The jungle of people
Not the tiny flowers of somebody’s greenhouse
The poets today
Are not unfamiliar with the people’s common pains
They smile with people’s lips
And connect the pain and hope of people
To their own spirit …
