O, box within box, walls that enclose me,
one day I will escape this onion-like confinement.
One day I will wash my frail body in the light
and let the sun clothe me in its golden robe.
One day my body will gleam with the flash of dawn
like a spear ready for battle, rising slowly as called.
I will apply rainbow’s beauty to my face
and let my scarf flutter unbound.
I will scatter blue petals in the wind
and praise God in the mountains like a white Lilly.
O, onion-like walls, one day, when the morning
holds to me its untarnished mirror,
I will find myself in full bloom
and you in inescapable rot.
Simin Behbahani’s English Translations from the book entitled A Cup of Sin Courtesy of Syracuse University Press
