Magic Lantern
By Majid Naficy
This turning wheel in which we are perplexed
I compare to a magic lantern:
The sun: a lamp, the world: a lantern
And we ourselves as rotating forms.
Omar Khayyam
My phantom came from a lamp
Hanging over a shop counter.
It projected shadows of a grocer and my mother
On a wall across the street
In the Friday nights of my childhood.
In the dark cave of our car
We sat waiting for Mother.
Father would point and say: “Look!
The grocer is putting cheese on the scale
Now he is wrapping it in paper
Now he is taking money from your mother.”
I watched in amazement
Wishing Mother would not return soon
And Father would not start the car
So that I could gaze longer
At the shadow play on the wall.
Now my father sleeps in shadows
And my mother who lives alone
Goes to visit him every Friday evening
And I ask myself, like Plato:
Was this all real or a phantom?
July 18, 2010
فانوس خيال
مجید نفیسی
اين چرخ فلك كه ما در او حيرانيم
فانوس خيال از او مثالی دانيم
خورشيد چراغ دان و عالم فانوس
ما چون صُوَريم كاندرو گردانيم
عمر خيام
خيال من همه از چراغی بود
آويزان بر فراز پيشخوان دكان
كه سايه ی بقال و مادر را
بر ديواری آن سوی خيابان می انداخت
در جمعه شبهای كودكی من.
ما در غار تاريك ماشين
منتظر مادر می نشستيم
كه پدر به اشاره می گفت: "نگاه كن!
بقال پنير را در ترازو می گذارد
اینک آن را توی كاغذ می پيچد
اینک پول را از مادرت می گيرد."
من با شگفتی تماشا مي كردم
و در دل ميگفتم كاش مادر زود برنگردد
و پدر ماشين را روشن نكند
تا من بتوانم دمی بيشتر
به سايه بازی روی ديوار چشم بدوزم.
اكنون پدرم در سايه سار خوابيده
و مادرم كه تنها زندگي می كند
هر جمعه عصر به ديدار او می رود
و من چونان افلاتون از خود می پرسم
آيا اين همه حقيقت بود يا خيال؟
هژده ژوئن دوهزاروده
Firoozeh Khatibi:
Beautiful. Thank you
Hugh:
Thanks, Majid. Very nostalgic.
Best regards
Feriedoun Farahandouz:
So beautiful and nostalgic.
Lillian Boraks Nemetz:
Dear Majid
Thank you for this magical poem
With so
Many symbols, innuendoes ,contrasts
between the light and the dark, shadow and being, memory, childhood and loss.
Lots to think about.
Be well and safe
Lillian
Casey:
I love these memories that you vividly bring to pen and paper. They are so special and I can tell how very much your mother means to you.
Love you!
Sharyn:
What a beautiful poem, Majid! It captures the wide-eyed wonder of childhood and the shadowy sadness of old age.
Farnoosh:
Thanks Majid. I hope you are doing fine. I loved this poem about shadows and the stories they tell. Let me just say : Saayeyeh shomaa kam nashavad.
Mehdy:
To understand this beautiful and deep poem one should know about Plato's Cave or Allegory of the Cave. Check Wikipedia.
Jahangir:
Nice. Thank you Majid jan
Ezat:
Thank you Dr. Naficy; it was fantastic. I enjoyed, paused and thought. I will read it again and again.
With best cordial wishes,