Esfandyar’s Eye

A curtain of white smoke

Blocks your eyes bit by bit

And there is no way out

But swallowing the foam of your rage

Which bubbles from every wave of your being.  

Oh woe, oh woe, oh woe

How long do you lick your leprous wound

You foaming camel?

You are neither Rudaki, to play it out with a harp*

Nor Abul Ala, to spit it out through satire.*

Hence, you must burn  

On this brazier without Esfand’s seeds*

And lament your Esfandyar’s eye forever.*

January 16, 1986
Majid Naficy

*- Rudaki: A blind Persian bard (858-941)

*- Abul Ala alMo’arri: A blind Arab, skeptic poet (973-1058)

*-Traditionally in Iran, the seeds of wild rue (esfand) are burnt on a brazier to ward off the evil eye. 

*- In Iranian mythology,  Esfandyar’s eye is similar to the Greek Achilles’ heel. He is blessed with invulnerablity because he carries holy wars for the prophet Zoroaster. Nevertheless, Rostam, the Iranian Hercules, kills Esfandyar by shooting a tamarisk-tree arrow into his eye.

مجید نفیسی