Poem
Nazand Begikhani
Dreams
Dreams
Dreams
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreamsto frame my present from my dreams
to plant my words
in their soil
to wear a necklace of dream-stars
to link up with the moon
and to fly blue in space
The past with its clawed fists
the present with its idiotic grimness
the future with its doubts and secrets
where do they take me?
A time of rust!
Lifetime, Desire, Stone
Everything has its own defined space
everything has its own colour and dullness
everything but dreams
indefinite, mysterious, timeless
Do you not hear the footsteps of your dreams?
Do you not hear the murmur of their breath?
They walk beside you,
lie next to you,
are always conceived within you
with seeds of unforeseen joy
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreams
in dreams I map out a space
in dreams I eat an apple from the garden of Eden
I turn into an angel
I reconcile God and the snake
in my dreams
I cleanse Eve’s sins
and return Adam to Paradise
In my dreams I become a mirage
hold the hand of the rain
and release it over the desert
in dreams
I become morning dew glinting on the eyelashes of the sand
In dreams I approach my soul
become a cataract of light
cross all the remote distances
and engrave the words of a poem on the rocks of Judaea
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreams
transform myself into words
steal myself into poetry
Look, I am wearing my necklace of words
In dreams I steal back from words to myself.
© 2006, Nazand Begikhani
From: Bells of Speech
Publisher: Ambit Books, London
This poem was originally written in Kurdish and was translated by the author.
From: Bells of Speech
Publisher: Ambit Books, London
Nazand Begikhani
(Iraqi Kurdistan, 1964)
Nazand Begikhani was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1964. She has been living in exile (Denmark, France and currently the UK) since 1987. She took her first degree in English language and literature, then completed an MA and PhD in comparative literature at the Sorbonne. She published her first collection, Yesterday of Tomorrow, in Paris in 1995. Her second and third collections were published in K...
Poems
Poems of Nazand Begikhani
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Dreams
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreamsto frame my present from my dreams
to plant my words
in their soil
to wear a necklace of dream-stars
to link up with the moon
and to fly blue in space
The past with its clawed fists
the present with its idiotic grimness
the future with its doubts and secrets
where do they take me?
A time of rust!
Lifetime, Desire, Stone
Everything has its own defined space
everything has its own colour and dullness
everything but dreams
indefinite, mysterious, timeless
Do you not hear the footsteps of your dreams?
Do you not hear the murmur of their breath?
They walk beside you,
lie next to you,
are always conceived within you
with seeds of unforeseen joy
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreams
in dreams I map out a space
in dreams I eat an apple from the garden of Eden
I turn into an angel
I reconcile God and the snake
in my dreams
I cleanse Eve’s sins
and return Adam to Paradise
In my dreams I become a mirage
hold the hand of the rain
and release it over the desert
in dreams
I become morning dew glinting on the eyelashes of the sand
In dreams I approach my soul
become a cataract of light
cross all the remote distances
and engrave the words of a poem on the rocks of Judaea
I’d like to follow in the footsteps of my dreams
transform myself into words
steal myself into poetry
Look, I am wearing my necklace of words
In dreams I steal back from words to myself.
From: Bells of Speech
This poem was originally written in Kurdish and was translated by the author.
Dreams
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