"In the Morning" and "I Walk Out"
Read Jila Mossaed's poems "In the morning / they wake me" and "I walk out / with my papers into the rain," translated by Nicola Vulpe, in the Schism issue of The Ex-Puritan!
ExploreIn the Morning
På morgonen
väcker de mig
i spegeln
Blyga kvinnor klädda i dygd
Kvinnor som åldras
i den oerfarna kärlekens famn
inbäddade i bomull och pärlor
Fångar med ångest
har aldrig släppt
sina drifter fria
Kvinnor som uppenbarar sig varje morgon
påminner mig
att berätta om mina mödrar
Och om mig själv
med frusna rötter
under min kjol
In the morning
they wake me
in the mirror
these shy women wrapped in virtue
These women who grow old
in the arms of love never dared
buried under cotton and pearls
Prisoners of dread
who’ve never let
their passion slip free
These women who show up each morning
reminding me
that I must speak of my mothers
And of myself
and my roots frozen
under my skirt
I Walk Out
Jag går ut
med mina papper i regnet
Raderna suddas ut
Liknar tårar
som sköljer bort våndan
ur strupen
Hur sover de underjordiska innevånarna
när regnet trummar på deras tak?
I walk out
with my papers into the rain
The lines wash away
Like tears
washing dread
from the throat
How do they sleep, the underworld people
when the rain rattles their roofs?
Jila Mossaed was 17 when she published her first poems in Iranian literary journals. She went on to study in the United States, then write for Iranian radio and television. Her first poetry collection, The Fleet Gazelles of Memory, published in 1986, earned her an unwelcome visit from the Iranian censors. She left Iran with her two children shortly afterwards, eventually finding refuge in Sweden. In 1997, Mossaed published her first poetry collection in Swedish, The Moon and the Eternal Cow. She has received numerous literary prizes in Sweden, and in 2018 she was elected to Chair 15 of the Swedish Academy. Her poetry has been translated into Dutch, Greek and French, and her work has been honoured in France with both the Prix Vénus Khoury-Ghata and the Prix Max Jacob. Her most recent book, Jag tillhörde vindarna (I belonged to the wind), was published in 2024.
Nicola Vulpe is a Canadian poet whose most recent collections, Insult to the Brain and Through the Waspmouth I Drew You, both received Fred Cogswell Awards for Excellence in Poetry. His next collection, On the News that Sagittarius A* Grows Hungrier, will appear with Guernica Editions in 2025.