Translated from the Persian by Niloufar Talebi

although the path
tracks my footsteps,
i don’t travel it
for the path travels me

and although the path
travels me,
it takes its own path, but
leaves my footprints in its tracks.

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Amir-Hossein Afrasiabi was born in 1934 in Esfahan, Iran. Poet, short-story writer, and critic, he has been living in the Netherlands since 1986. He started writing poetry as a child and is the author of six books of poetry in Persian as well as poems in Dutch. His Persian books are Autumn Words, With the Seagulls, Station, On the Way, More Words, and Until the Next Station. In language unusually fresh for his generation, Afrasiabi’s poetry meditates on aging and memory.

Niloufar Talebi was born in London to Iranian parents. She took a BA in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine and an MFA in Writing from Bennington College. In 2002, she launched “The Translation Project” to bring contemporary Iranian literature to a worldwide audience. An Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Poetry in Diaspora, which she edited and translated, is forthcoming in 2007. (5/2006)