#A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems

[majestativa]

Who knows the rosebud’s pain as it opens to full bloom?

— Abbas Kiarostami, A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems, transl by Karim Emami and Michael Beard, (2005)

[yaya-tchoum]

“I escorted the moon down to the heart of a dark cloud. I drank some wine and fell asleep.”

~•Abbas Kiarostami•~

#Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”, translated from the Persian by Karim Emami & Michael Beard #photo Daniel W.Coburn #Becoming a Specter

[litandlifequotes]

I feel free to choose my suffering.

A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems by Abbas Kiarostami

[larealidadelosotros]

Abbas Kiarostami. Selected Poems, A Wolf lying in wait. (2005)

[delirantesko]

Quem conhece

a dor do botão de rosa

quando ele se abre em plena floração?

— Abbas Kiarostami , A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems , traduzido por Karim Emami e Michael Beard , (2005)

[derangedrhythms]

hi <3 i was wondering if you have any quotes about lying? thank you so much

"If you entreat me with your loveliest lie / I will protest you with my favourite vow."

— Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles; from 'xi'

"…the one thing that must never come between two people who have offered each other love is a lie."

— John Fowles, from ‘The Magus’

"...never lie about emotions and make false promises."

— Martha Gellhorn, from 'Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn'; to Hortense Flexner, 1962

"A lie may fool someone else, but it tells you the truth: you’re weak."

— Tom Wolfe, from 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'

"Tell me, black heart, twelve white lies."

— Maxine Kumin, from ‘Tell Me, Black Heart’, published in ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup’ ed. Jerry Williams

“From this moment I will never know / ease,” you said, “since you have lied to me, / nor joy.”

— Louise Glück, The Triumph of Achilles; from ‘From the Japanese’

"I am the most destructive person alive because I / can’t bear the lies in your heart."

— Alice Notley, Songs and Stories of the Ghouls; from 'The Book of Dead'

"I honor those who try / to rid themselves of lying,"

— Rumi, Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing; from ‘Clear Being’, tr. Coleman Barks

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others."

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, from 'The Brother's Karamazov', tr. Constance Garnett

"I am stuffing your mouth with your / promises and watching / you vomit them out upon my face."

— Anne Sexton, 45 Mercy Street from 'Killing the Love'

"By the time you swear you’re his, / Shivering and sighing, / And he vows his passion is / Infinite, undying – / Lady, make a note of this: / One of you is lying."

— Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope; “Unfortunate Coincidence”

"Can a lie be taken as communication? I tend to deny it. A lie is the opposite of communication. It means specifically to withhold the other's share and portion of reality, to prevent his participation in reality."

— Josef Pieper, Abuse of Language Abuse of Power, tr. Lother Krauth

"To betray with a kiss. The reek of Judas. I took the brush to clean my teeth and thought of his mouth. Kiss of life, kiss of death. Come kiss me so that I can read your lips, deceptions scripted and waiting to be staged. His lying heart is in his mouth. When I kissed him this morning I tasted his fear."

— Jeanette Winterson, from 'Gut Symmetries'

"Truth, you are a good mistress to your faithful servants! While a Lie pressed me, how I suffered! Even when the Falsehood was still sweet, still flattering to the fancy, and warm to the feelings, it wasted me with hourly torment."

— Charlotte Brontë, from 'Villette'

"But I believe in uttering the truth, even if it hurts. Particularly if it hurts."

— Joyce Carol Oates, from ‘We Were the Mulvaneys’

"There's more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty."

— John Steinbeck, from 'East of Eden'

[dk-thrive]

this day of mine was lost

This day of mine was lost like all the other days, half of it thinking of yesterday, half of it thinking of tomorrow.

— Abbas Kiarostami, A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems, (tr. by Karim Emami & Michael Beard) (via sea-born)

[artdaily7]

Selected Poems from A Wolf Lying in Wait by Abbas Kiarostami The wind will carry the cherry blossoms away to the white of the clouds. After every cresting wave three wavelets after three wavelets another cresting wave. I escorted the moon down to the heart of a dark cloud. I drank some wine and fell asleep. A bird sings in the middle of the night; unfamiliar even to the birds. The glow of the harvest moon upon the window made the glass tremble. My shadow accompanies me now in front now by my side now following. What a relief are these cloudy days! I am returning from a funeral. My shoes feel tight. I feel like making love to someone I don't know. Today's opportunity was lost just like yesterday's; what remains is a record of the days. In the wasteland of my solitude single trees thrust up by the thousand. In your absence I debate with myself. We come to agreement on everything so easily. In your absence the sun is just the sun the day, day night, night. Your presence in a moonlight mixture. In your absence I converse with you, when you are there I converse with myself. In your absence the day lasts twenty-four full hours. When you are here now more now less. With you I suffer. Alone with myself I'm in fear. Where is my non-self? I love so much that I'm sick of it. Hesitant I stand at the juncture. The only way I know is the way back. I tread a narrow path with difficulty aimlessly. My shirt is a flag of freedom fluttering in the clothesline; light and liberated from the body's bondage. What a pity I was not a good host for the first snowflake that settled on my eyelid. It does not rain enough on rainy days. The sun dismantled the display of the dewdrops a moment after rising. Where is a cloud to soften a little the intensity of the merciless sun? A wolf lying in wait. A thousand bats chirping together in the longest night of the year. Flight is the reward of a caterpillar that wrapped itself in a cocoon of silk. I dread even a gentle breeze when I have been through a severe storm. It has been raining ceaselessly for three days; I can't bring myself to believe in the sun. The sky shatters in a broken mirror. What a relief that everyone goes in his own way. A stranger asks directions from another newly-arrived stranger. It was plucked; it was thrown away, a flower not particularly sweet-smelling. A boat with no sail a sea with no wind a sky with no moon. How easily we've accepted it not seeing even one pigeon flying among a flock of crows! When I returned to my birthplace the river had become a stream and no children were bathing in it. Tens of keys left over from faraway days; I do not dare to throw them away even when there is no lock for them to open. Inadvertently I step into a house in which no light burns. What is the meaning of the seashore next to the fear of the waves? Of the day's bitterness there is no trace in my dreams at night. I am afraid of heights; I have fallen from a high place. I am afraid of fire; I have been burned many times. I am afraid of separation; often have I been offended. I am not afraid of death; I have never died before, not even once. Among my current beliefs one is that life is beautiful. I have arranged to travel with a new companion to a destination I have never been. Beyond good and evil, the sky is blue. What was in my heart poured out of my tongue. It burned her heart and my tongue. I work hard without joy without sorrow. I recorded a masterpiece in my diary in the middle of the night. When morning came it was no more than gibberish. The death of an eternal love in a heart that stopped beating. Here I stand on top of a cliff; my shadow beckoning me from the bottom of the valley. Arthur Rackham 1912 The Wolf and the Goat, illustration from Aesops Fables

[nooriasphotobooth]

I am afraid of heights;

I have fallen from a high place.

I am afraid of fire;

I have been burned many times.

I am afraid of separation;

Often have I been offended.

I am not afraid of death

I have never died before,

not even once.

-Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”.🦋

[majestativa]

Your presence is a moonlight mixture.

— Abbas Kiarostami, A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems, transl by Karim Emami and Michael Beard, (2005)

[yaya-tchoum]

“I escorted the moon down to the heart of a dark cloud. I drank some wine and fell asleep.”

~•Abbas Kiarostami•~

#Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”, translated from the Persian by Karim Emami & Michael Beard #dream

[soracities]

Hello, I hope you don't mind me asking: do you know of any poetry collections by Iranian authors? My friend's birthday is coming up and since she's half Iranian and learning Farsi, I thought such a book might be a good gift. Hope you're well. Take care.

Not that many but maybe these will fit

The Oasis of Now: Selected Poems, Sohrab Sepehri

Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad / Another Birth: Poems, Forugh Farrokhzad

A Wolf Lying in Wait: Poems. Abbas Kiarostami

Rooftops of Tehran, Sholeh Wolpé

The Poetry of Iranian Women: A Contemporary Anthology

I would normally also add Rumi and Hafez, but I still haven’t found translations that seem to not be transliterations or mere watered down versions, so if anyone knows any good ones please add them on, too. i hope you find something your friend will like♡

[wafaiism]

Spring has returned again

"I dreamt

I was lounging in a garden

all by myself

with a dark blue sky overhead

and grey flowers all around"

- Abbas Kiarostami from, A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems

[finita--la--commedia]

Bury my heart separately. It is fragile.

Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”, translated from the Persian by Karim Emami & Michael Beard

[sophi-aubrey]

Inadvertently  I step into a house in which no light burns

©Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”

Merci @finita--la--commedia for this words

[megiddo]

A sacred time and space elaborates

The death of an eternal love in a heart that has stopped beating - Abbas Kiarostami, from “A Wolf Lying in Wait: Selected Poems”

stand absolutely still and cast your thoughts as snowy silence slowly descends so much undone by thoughts so much unspoken indeed those eyes of my mother of the invisible I wish follow follow me

Michael Baumgart