Moe’s Skin pt II
CiCi Suen, Pansy (2021)
Image description: A mixed-media drawing of the upper half of a statue, partially hidden behind some shrubbery. The statue is sketched loosely in pencil while the leaves surrounding it are in bluish-green and dark purple hues.
Moe’s Skin pt II
By Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi
wrote to write you
like that black tie smile
for the girls
(got the girls)
boy who denied himself
a boyhood
your day unfolds as bleak
as another
sun set
a world reshuffling
loved you /
loved youNOT
this/
cold night
barefoot on marble
wine in coffee-cup
jazz-struck
lurking in fragments
memories
in blue-silhouette
good cop/bad cop lovers
“NO” sorry forgot
the Heat soundtrack
wind
in beer stench teeth
gnashing
and
withdrew
boy who forgot he was a boy
(hope
you kiss
a stranger
find lost years
in belly button fluff)
you:
the walking masculine
I couldn’t (should’ve)
but the CRT TV reflection
showed a boy undressing
stretching hands to reach…
and I whip my head around
no limbs reaching to fill
softly
(fill the lack you feel:
post midnight motto of mine)
to think…
so much not knowing
sunrise in your eyes
/| wished
//|an entir
////|e city w
//////|ould re
////////| shuffle
//////////| buildin
////////////|gs move
just to shade you
CiCi Suen, 2021.1 (2021)
Image description: A white shapeless orb floating through the dark surroundings of a forest. The trees surrounding the orb are depicted in dark green and maroon hues.
Two Translations from Farsi
Translator’s Note:
To Iranians, free verse and contemporary poetry are synonymous with the name Nima Youshij since in Farsi the very term coined for free verse was Nima verse in honor of his colossal feat of standing against century upon century of ghazals, mathnavis, and several other forms of Persian poetry in order to create a contemporary poetry with his background in French poetics. Though Nima Youshij is perhaps the greatest contemporary figure in Persian poetry, not much of his work is translated, and not much is translated well. I have approached translating his incredibly dense and culturally complex poetry mostly through a semi-agglutinative linguistic approach similar to certain translations of Paul Celan, whose poetry was pivotal to me in unlocking the translation of Nima Youshij.
Woe is me
By Nima Youshij
my farmland dried out
and the constant barrage
of the contrived...
useless
fruitless
the slender crevice of my house
pierced by the enemy’s cunning gaze
woe is me!
prepared for the heart’s sake:
arrows poisoned by a grudge
upon blood-smeared roads then/
beheaded corpses
dusted
with ancestry-plated graves
removes from my walls
and places upon the soil
and from the hurt of the sorrowful
sits upon the heads plucked
narrates the story of sorrow.
woe is me!
in a night as dark as this
who shall trample
-unknowingly-
upon these heads
still shifting?
when shall silence break in this heavy night
from heads whose move and shake
weaves with enchantment each moment?
when shall a star
-liberated from the earth’s corruption-
lend light to this dark-hearted night!
Passersby!
O Passersby!
tread my path. without thought my enemy arrives
slams me against the door, asks me names and addresses
woe is me!
upon which corner of this night shall I hang my ragged clothes?
so I can remove poisonous arrows from this sorrowful heart, bloodied?
woe is me!
CiCi Suen, Garden with Statue (2022)
Image description: A mixed-media drawing of a statue in a garden. The statue, with one hand slightly raised, is partially hidden behind a barren tree and surrounded by some overgrown dark bluish-green shrubbery. The statue is slightly out of focus, and we are unable to see any of its features.
Me. Alone.
By Nima Youshij
amidst pine trees
a sparse fringe atop the mountain range ahead
my figure divorced from me how silver-sown
and I the vagabond of this dark night
his eyes watchful in tears
from afar
mounted on a giant’s hair
but perhaps I have found a way
as I hand-walk along this darkness
a sinkhole a candle
and as if sharpened rock
I fall in the maw of the giant
and under its teeth:
sit in exhaustion
no path ahead
just me
sat at the pathway
in this dark night
the Peganum branches quake
and the wind dragon-like
slithering
meets in this darkness
the beclouded facade of an island
secluded at the warm heart
of the nearby village
oblivious to all
villagers sleep
something diminishes
amidst all the diminished
Hey People!
who has heard of him?
was it perhaps that an unknown rider passed
whose white steed galloped atop the stony creek
fed by the village’s water source?
in Willow-dale he unmounted for a drink
glanced at me, and his smile blossomed
and in that moment we spoke
though- moonrider he-
spoke no more
that lone ranger came and passed
lost
did he seek the Hamun lake?
or the mountain range perhaps
far from the plains
Hey! who has heard of him
even as much as a sliver
of news
and no one shall reply thus now
no one speaks my language
wind slithers still
and the Peganum quakes
I tread this long path still
upon the pitch black darkness of this night still
Me. Alone.
Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi (He/They) is a queer, Iranian-born, Toronto-based poet, writer and translator. Shortlisted for the 2021 Austin Clarke Poetry Prize, they are the winner of the 2021 Vallum Poetry Prize and the author of three poetry chapbooks and two translated poetry chapbooks. Their debut poetry collection Me, You, Then Snow is out with Gordon Hill Press. Their second book WJD is forthcoming in a double volume with the translation of Saeed Tavanaee’s The OceanDweller from Gordon Hill Press in Fall 2022. Their collaborative poetry manuscript with poet Klara Du Plessis is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press in Fall 2023. @DearKestrel on Instagram
*
CiCi Suen is an artist based in London. From 2015 to 2017 she studied illustration at the University of the Arts London. She created a lot of illustrations and comics and found her own style and direction during this time. CiCi uses charcoal and pastel to create unique hand-drawn artwork. She is attracted to nature because of its complex and often chaotic structure. Web: http://www.cicisuen.com/
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