The unaware
are alike,
only storm bears different children.
Those alike
are like shadows,
cautious,
on the borders of sunlight.
In the guise of the living
they are dead.
And these,
throwers of caution to wind
are guardians of fire;
the living;
marching shoulder to shoulder with death,
ahead of death,
still living even after with death.
And forever with the name
with which they lived.
Since decay
passes beneath the tall horizon of their memory,
hunched and shamefaced.
Explorers of the wellspring,
humble seekers of hemlock,
Explorers of joy
in the mouth of the volcanoes,
Magicians of smiles from top hats of pain,
with footprints deeper than joy
on the paths of birds.
They face the thunder,
light the house,
and die.
For Che Guevara, from Dagger in the Tray (May 15, 1975)
Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000) was an Iranian Marxist poet and intellectual. He opposed the Shah of Iran before the revolution of 1979, and was imprisoned following the 1953 CIA-backed coup. The Shamlou poems appearing in this issue were translated for Locust Review by Saman Sepehri..
This translation originally appeared in Locust Review 9 print edition. Locust Review 9 cover by Adam Ray Adkins.
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