Walking with the Wind Poems by Abbas Kiarostami , De ert SS eu nena oe Rie badWalking with the Wind Poems by Abbas Kiarostami Persian by Ahmad KarimicHakkak and Michael BeardINTRODUCTION Abmad Karimi-Hakkak and Michael Beard It is easy to believe that the Abbas Kiarostami who wrote this volume of poetry is the same Kiarostami who has created such extraordinary films as Close-Up and Taste of Cherry: itis harder to place the artist within his native aesthetic tradition. The cinematic moments in Walking with the Wind are what we notice first. At times the vignettes it ‘contains recall the camera shots in his films that last just long enough to establish our identification before moving con. At times there is a complex interplay between points of view, established so Quickly that our impulse is to reach fur the pause button. One of the building blocks of Kiarostan’s films, a scene in which two characters see themselves Liticrenty is depicted in the poem on page 44. Here, three vantage points, each emerging naturally, are expressed in such a nonchalant way that the presentation belies the poem's complexity How merciful that the turtle doesn't see the little bird's effortless flight.The three vantage points—turtle’s, bird's, human observer's (or camera's} —may leave us wondering where we stand, both literally and metaphorically. Somewhere beyond the three viewpoints (ours as well as theirs) we sense a vision that lights the flame of an impossible desire. ‘The preface to the Persian edition of these poems compares them to flashes of lightning between stretches of darkness. We like the image not so much for its grandeur oF n ignificence but for its speed. The illumination cast by these poems manifests itself suddenly, and the subjects are in constant motion. A collection of Japanese haiku, which in some ways Walking with the Wind resembles, may meander from one vignette to another, but rarely with the feeling of restlessness and acceleration. And yer even a restless eye can observe closely. These poems are deliberate and gradual enough to present lessons in how to perceive nuances. Take the opening poem. If we read it against the backdrop of the contrasting opposites that create the struts and beams of classical Persian poetry, the comparison makes us aware of more delicate shades: A white foal emerges through the fog and disappears in the fog.At first the poem may seem to privilege a contrast between black and white. In the end we find ourselves faced with subtler distinctions. The poem alerts us that we will be shown a world of slight differences. Or, consider the poem on page 98 Snow descends from the black clouds with the whiteness of snow. The reiterated whiteness seems to make it necessary to compare the snow to itself Even when the poems shift, carcen, and slide subtly from one scene to the next—presenting images in motion, like the horse in the opening poem, alerting us to a world in which things will show up briefly and disappear, or the snow in the next, or the clouds a few poems later—the glimpse is in sharp focus. Although the scenes themselves may elude us—the footprints in snow in the poem on page 19, the pigeon three poems later, or the various animals and passersby whose motives, habits, and trajectories extend outside the frame—the elusive can also be exact. ‘The aesthetic of close observation is akin to the aesthetic of familiar objects: the imperative to pause and look more closely at daily experience. And yer it is not necessarily Kiarostami’s cinematic instincts that we experience in these poems, Film celebrates the specific landscape—and this may be eminently true of Kiarostami’s filmmaking, where the layout of a village, the landscape of the abrasive and irregular or textured and grainy, take prevedence over the expectedor the generic. Language, without the resources of detail allowed by the camera, can rarely achieve the same visual density. The poems of Walking with the Wind don't even seem to evoke particular landscapes. There are poems here in which the act of perception can be the whole point, as in the poem on page 57: Autunm afternoon: a sycamore leaf falls softly and rests ton its own shadow, Strictly speaking, itis obvious that a leaf falls on its shadow. It is a process so logical it should bear no comment, except, of course, that the observer can forget che logical conclusion that shadow and leaf are connected. Observation corrects consciousness. It is our unscientific selves who are capable of surprise at how exactly the two match up. Where does Kiarostami’s leaf fallin relation to the long and imposing shadow of Persian poetry? Stylistcally, no poet in the last half century or so has gone as far as Kiarostami to signal a break with the formal features of poetry in that tlorious, millennium-old aesthetic tradition. Even Nima Yushij (1897-1960), the poet most often cited as the modernizer of Persian poetry, did not break entirely free of rhyme and meter, In that sense, at least, Kiarostami may be called the most radical Iranian poet of his generation, perhaps of the century. Thematically, Kiarostami the poet relies more substantively on the conventions that define poetry in his culture. He certainly uses the basic conceptualclements of the Persian lyrical tradition, often with philosophical or meditative underpinnings. The technique of developing poetic discourse through pairs of corresponding or oppositional images, concepts, or modes of existence informs both the ghazals of Rumi (1207-73) and Hafer (1320-88) and shapes a great number of the poems in this volume, Thus the white of snow, while it contrasts with the color of coal or of the raven’s wings, coincides aestheti- cally with the white of the pigeon or the cloud, This play of correspondences and contrasts—of age and youth or of smooth surfaces versus craggy ones—appears more stark in those compositions, like the poem on page 69, that simply record observations without explicitly or implicitly commenting upon them: An old villager ‘on the mountain path — a young man's call from afar: (Or the poem on page 74, where the contrast beeween the moon and the mountain peak generates a mood of buoy: and escape: The rowed moon rises gingerly above the volcanic peak,At times, the principle of contrasts turns into a transtormative power that stretches from the observed seene 40 the desire within the poem. The contrast between the roaring train and the butterfly sleeping on the ral, and the halting of one before the other in the poem on page 167, conveys nor just an observed event hut a colossal will ro change the way of the world. Similarly, the visible correspondence and conceptual opposition between the crescent “new” moon and the “worn-out” sickes on page 192, direct borrowing from Hafer, the greatest Persian Iyrivist ofall, opens a conceptual space far beyond the image at hand. In a famous poem by Hafez, the erescent “blade” of the new moon against the backdrop of the blue-green evening sky calls the speaker inward t0 regret how litle he has cultivated, how lice he ean expect to reap at harvest time. Kiarostami’s variation makes the pale moon seem co overpower the emblems of physical work. There is something in the scope of our poet's project that resembles another tradition of Persian aesthetics. Like Rumi, the poet of the largest questions in all of Persian poetry, he reaches our to the world rather than focusing on any local topic. His thinking is cosmopolitan, humane, and global. This may explain the simultaneous presence of the nun, the soldier, the villager, and the many other characters that populate these poems. The simplest classification would include humans and animals; but there are objects impersonating them as well, as with the gullible bee fooled by the floral pattern on a Persian rug in the poem on page 87. Then there is the strony sense of seasonal change, of the falling of the leaves or the stow, or of the enveloping fog—a constant reminder of a fundamental mystery. -10-The most central personage of all isthe wind. Doubtless there are traditions in every culture that relate the imagination directly to the elements, and the idea could easily extend to modern Persian poetry, where poets often inhabit one or another of the four elements. The great nature poet Sohrab Sepehri (1930-80), for example, is by and large a poet of earth and soil. Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67), the voice best known abroad, who takes in the view outside her window with an eye to the skyline or the space between buildings, strikes us as a poet of air. There is a poem by Farrokhzad, “The Wind Will Carry Us,” which opens with a memorably personalized landscape: Alas, in this small night of mine the wind keeps its appointment with the leaves of the trees Inv this small night of mine is the fear of rain. Kiarostami, whose use of this poem's title for a recent film suggests his appreciation for it, evokes the wind to a comparable effect. Even though he is unlikely to evince a mood so personally —with an “alas” or with a trope that absorbs the scene into self, as we see in the phrase “this small night of mine”—he, t00, is primarily and ulsimately a firse-person observer who frequently personifies the forces of nature. While Kiarostami rarely expresses ar induces feelings of anguish or melancholy, in both poets personal perception works co justify the figurative language as the figurative language defines the poetic voice. In other words, the similarities, chough considerable, are thematic, not[Ac the same rime, in Farrokhvad awareness of the spaces between characters—both the emotional distance and the physical space, the air between images that gives her vignettes their shape—volors the mood of the lyric vision Kiarostami’s sensibility, coo, makes us aware of the space between things, the texture of the air, the space in which invisible forces play around us. Yer his is ultimately a more serene and benevolent, perhaps a more ennobling, space ‘This subtle difference is made concrete in Kiarostanw’s more rural and less citified variation of Farrokhzad Nevertheless, his vision, too, is largely philosophical or at least meditative, as distinet from social. In some of these poems, the consciousness contemplating an ordinary scene comes away with the kernel of a thought, distilled from the scene, that seems to stand above it ever so tentatively yet in a genuine philosophical relation co it. Such, for example, is the thought of release that arises from the contemplation of a pair of trembling hands tightly drawing the arrow in the poem on page 38; the momentary hesitation thus concretized leads to a final question: “for the bird . 2" Ie is as if the human eye, simply by observing, bestows a meaning on the workings of the world that the mind quickly questions. Conversely, the absence of the human agent is cause not just for regret but for angst. Kiarostami’s poems, always placing the human inside the natural, often pointing to hints of a grand design just outside the human reach, share the heritage of Persian mysticism as it is manifested in much modernist poetry, where nature is not only animate but animating. There is a question that emerges from time to time in the study of the great innovative voices who developed contemporary writing in Persian throughout the twentieth century: did that movement signal a break with tradition ‘or was it a continuation and extension of that tradition? The two translators of this collection have argued on opposite sides of this issue, but we both agree that Kiarostami has developed a unique personal voice capable of synthesizingthe two. To say, for instance, that speed is his dominant style is merely to say that Kiarostami has attended to che classical ghazal with its leaps from one image to another, but only to the extent that images and motifs contribute to a coherent mood. The thematics of the Persian ghazal—the parror in love with sugar, harvests set ablaze, breezes that 1ews of the beloved, weeping narcissuses—provide not only a characteristic zigzag motion but a lexicon, While the image of the waxing moon makes sense floating there alone, the reader familiar with Persian may well hear in it a passing echo of the Hafezian ghazal. A close reader of these poems, that is, may see not only the image on the screen but a distinet color in the light passing through the film, Habitually, nonchalantly, Kiarostami combines the supple lexicon of the Persian language with the vast aesthetie potential of Persian poetry to that august tradition new. Characteristically he throws the spotlight on the object ‘of observation rather than on the perceiving mind to keep our attention fixed on the poetic nature of our world. In this way, his poetry embodies and exhibits the most abiding concerns of the entire tradition: the structure of the ineffable, those relations thar cannot be reduced to human logie—like the enigma of a dog’s fidelity, the bitterness of truth, the puzzle of poverty in the midst of plenty. The poems in this book often acknowledge and celebrate the presence of mystery in our midst. Whether explicitly, such as in the eyele of poems that open with the phrase “the more [ think,” or more subtly, as in many other instances in the following pages, they place the human within a world of nature, but nature widened to emphasize the mundane and the quotidian as well as the supernatural. Kiarostami has thus grafted the most abiding aspirations of the best af Persian poets, both classical and moder, to contemporary concerns. If he can he said as a filmmaker to have led the art form of the twentieth century to new aesthetic heights, these restless, airy walks with the wind may guide us step by step t0 a new verbal kineticWalking with the Wind Poems by Abbas Kiarostamicask coal 955 aie a 3h dpiyge sass 9 ways A white foal emerges through the fog and disappears in the fog.whe dy rahe Sy doh Sy se gest OL 4 599 sabes de Snow falls snow falls snow falls, The day ends. Snow falls. Night.Sy ponte che A passerby’ Sb CIS oe gone on an errand? footprints in the snow — $39 8 ey Is he coming back? Sol, aad 3! This way?tins 398 The graveyard gael ju is covered over Sys joan ge with snow. oad Gi Only on three tombstones ge Sia a 5 is the snow melting — Olga dus ya all three young.bay Bo gti ge C1 at yas dy wipes SU GI 9 Ob yple chle Soh 9 So583) The snow melts so rapidly — soon those footprints will be gone, large and small.PHS Soe White of a pigeon edag l yal 50 3 gai go aS erased in white clouds — ht 393 a snowy day.Jab shane sis ge olla A yosle I ybI sla glia Scats shal gS GUL The beating of drums frightens the roadside poppies. Will they show themselves again?bed Ghg8 GL pus io One hundred obedient soldiers hg 8 lS enter the barracks thes 28 SKI 5s early on a moonlit night. ob ib 6laL 5, Rebellious dreams! aeS295 Gp asi A little patch of snow — = AY gb pitine5 ob souvenir of a long winter seeghes Jal ! in early spring...Yellow violets violet violets together ad jilan 9 and apart.Cys 35 White-baired woman 13 Sd g0 QudlS sload gd a eyeing the cherry blossoms: Seoul oda IS ales yes sles LT “Has the spring of my old age arrived?”se Sal, ahaigs 5 ysl {Olga Glaaal, LS GUS Glee ys = 28. The old nun dispenses advice to the young nuns amid cherry trees.239) Sa clade ge Day-old chicks Sas ya experiencing Spec gl OWL Gaius their first spring shower.BRB 58 89S 399. lg Aimlessly aay in mild spring sunshine Gols aide ob the butterfly circling round itself.ole al 5s In the spring wind aGihe $5093.65 359 a school notebook's pages turn over — GGA (Sa 95 a child sleeping woglla gS So 95 Glaciuss 5 on his little hands...oe Sul, Whistle of the boiling kettle: AS 43 0 95 g0 dilae the old nun Sldige bjs lane is having breakfast alone.a9 ci The wild cockscomb iS gs 5 yay bides his time Gols Glaadails aliis aan yo in the cultivated company of spring pansies.Ba gs gage It flies and settles opt gt ge settles and flies away again — ee the grasshopper la go a gS Lad 4S cas ay in the direction it alone knows.oli 9S seas Gt igs eal say Glas ole ows SL Six short nuns stroll amid tall sycamores. The shriek of crows.gobi From a crack in the ashen sky algo 98 a drop of light GC uSLD Glau GIS 5) falls Soles 64d 9S Gal gl 5s onto the spring’s first blossom.ust 39385 Amid thousands of cherry blossoms Sika gs 2a ye the honeybee NLS 545 95 GI 158 Glas yy hesitates.Oljy! gitiws oaushss Glas Ss oily waa $ .0dh ys Gls Trembling hands, an arrow drawn tight: moment of release for the bird . ..2S295 woud yy Ia ths oly, The dream of a thousand little birds slaughtered ull Say on a downy pillow.Ep aS A red apple B52 Coe 58 makes a thousand turns 1g 50 in the air aes 9 and falls BigSa5h S0 95 caus yo into the hands of a playful child.Lae gle 33 Among hundreds of rocks So3p 9 So 98 Saw small and large 4 dawdles a single turtle.So gusie Before sunrise — Cul 93S 5171) 355 IS the spider pbs g gle 5 as already gone to work.eilddain scausa 193 slo 95 Jo ys sad g gah ST gas Glows yg a Wellsprings in the heart of faraway mountains. Nobody to drink the water, not even a bird.Bhp AS as gd da How merciful pag Cay Ss that the turtle doesn’t see Vy So95 Goad ys ssa iIg the little bird’s effortless flight35 Ail ga IPR Sai a8 ashy OF aS Sa It sprouted blossomed withered and fell to the ground. Not a soul to see it.Sa gusie The spider ab iga jIS i! cus stops Glee and takes a moment’s break sad 95 ¢ gle (LaLa 4 to watch the sun rise.BIS Gla 95) Spring noon: ahs .g2 ISAs the worker bees Ge 3988 8 slow down.alias How calmly 0 gSihls da gloriously ob wie tl the moon rises ON g Gb 3 on the eastern horizon.How can the old turtle live three hundred years unaware of the sky? a4dlaallsis iso slaw One black night ola pits ys sill go 9 3 comet ALT SAS pp Jo yo pierces the pond’s heart — AGB GAT luo the hiss of hot steel wigs in the water,PS 5 94d S52 It grew large and still larger ds ols It grew full JS gS gud sags and turned small and smaller. satual Tonight abe git a moonless night.Se Ghy S26 Joe 38 UI Solel Sea all black shore black — should I expect the sun or the moon?lige 595 Moonlight 35g 95 thaws Ny OS 499) S5b thin ice on the old river.Jans Woman lying awake ANG joulsJa beside a sleeping man — 4GBR 546 US 5a no hope of a caressing hand.hush OER SUA GLI Ss gus 5a Five pregnant women in the silence of the waiting room — last day before the weekend.sP95 ghee 9 ul gay 8G tis go 98 9 cis Byles Al S 9 Nya oti dle Gas The wild rhubarb and the mountain clover converse and bask in the mild sunshine of autumn.we sp Autumn afternoon: als atil.ge 958 a sycamore leaf falls softly and rests on its own shadow.lyk obi A drop of rain oldu Sys iJ Lie gs rolls off the box-tree leaf US gil 52 Si gs and falls into the muddy water.gh oS ja ue aly ya caus 53.95 led 3! Sy goles adyab A hundred stout trees have broken in the wind — from the little sapling only two leaves blown away.jab As the wind rises Cautl S ys alas cas gi which leafs turn is it Sail 9 5 as to fall down?tag slag This time (gh Gil auigs 398 the wild geese land oar slags yp on cut reeds.Clan 5 A pregnant woman Nand igs Sige weeps silently Gaye Fins ya ina sleeping man’s bed.ou 1 2ags 59 HS Ib shit 9 fawe e abes The wind opens the old door and closes it noisily ten times.oly a diaad ay An exhausted traveler 4a on bis way alone — Sis yi Ss one parasang aaa from his destination.ols A moment after the rain sali go gud ploslinad as the moon Ob HI wy clei shines on wet box trees.erry Moonlight wubigs GIS GR jos shines on the pine tree CaS Gy 55 under heavy snow.abigs Sys SS A little nameless flower og 4 omg) blossoming alone gable Ags Gls 53 in the crack of a huge mountain,36) shou Sige ali $y Suu gege oa iy The roar of thunder over the village interrupts the dog’s bark.pillaas 95 00595 59 An old villager oly 3 eatin 940 pt on the mountain path — 299 3! Alga Uli 4 young man’s call from afarAaah The sagging bridge sal 35a hy oh Glas scratches the water's surface ole 495 warping 2945 8 the moonlight.aS gas cus 5 Nobody Seas La is IS can do anything Slani ily when the sky ay)s Gas yls sua means to shed rain.ola Sau BS ge 9896 alas 52319056 she 9 ja gs ed ya Starless night: black dog barking at the newcomer.Golo Spring breeze sab jigs Sua pis yuu 51 00S steals the hat off the scarecrow’s head — ogi Jl 59) al! first day of spring...ols yo The round moon sui.ge YL bLGal rises gingerly OLAS 545 3} above the volcanic peak. 74Couns 9 5 4S ao sat 98 Uo oss Shy Og Ge 3s The sun's disk pale in the east as fog settlesels All gs gyi ais HL 5 O08) Let > 5S OL jadi GLa The key hanging from a woman’s neck ina rice paddy falls off without a sound — a kettle boils on the kitchen stove.sly lS had 9 cues Sixty-six long steps eb cGaIG to the orchard’s other end — oli gs slasal y slaals L in short nuns’ steps.aus sgl A pregnant cow — age Jus 93 two empty milk pails olS 38 ya 532 cas yd in the hands of a passerby.A loaf of bread ‘gets distributed among five hungry boys — a woman in labor.SIS ld 955 Worker bees AIS ga La 1 IS leave work GRU or gS 9 HS sp for a pleasant chat So 5935 I ybI a around the queen bee.aya 9S The milk cow 259 64 21) > walks UB jy piling a2 as just like the villager bebind her ath las ga with two pails of milk.oles} A woman in labor lay awake ABR 3 yo Su g Jibs Gis gan yy surrounded by five girls and a sleeping man.Aaah ge HDS ge at JUS Oe old a ole Two nuns heavy-headed cross paths among the sycamores.lige Moonlight Aah Coty joan shining through the glass ONge aaah pillige G0 82 on the pale face gd oa of the young nun asleep. aeSjuk Ubi Autwnn sunshine — On Gaia a lizard alert ght 9 Stgajbs on the mud-brick wall,Suu yo At summer noon (pA ONS 935 95a 92 BYE the scarecrow Otiusl aS 59 p05 53 sweats under its woolen hat.He gS ge Adit 41a 98 5 585 The autumn sun shines through the window on the flowers of a carpet. A bee beats its head against the glass.ES sido gas Pine cones i gs gy fall one by one in strong autumn winds. 8La use Sunset — 9978S gels pe 993 42 A age flies circling lai G9 pf alsin around the dead nag’s head.oo gasie This time Bj gu the spider brings together 1 udLsS 9.95 sloasLe the branches of the cherry and the mulberry.Olyb aL The pouring rain SBS gtd ya on dried-up trees — 29 I stl5 slg from afar the shriek of a crow.ub Sis as 90 WSeScplas G4 ot Ly lass 39984 The wind slices a little cloud into two halves: one for the west, one for the east at noon on a day of drought.pilings Glades Fearlessly Lge ah ggg LES the village kids target Vy Su phe Galen yas the scarecrow’s tin head.(Alas Lule ds The thick fog of dawn 4s sNje3g2 oe over a cotton field — 298 jhaey Glas the sound of thunder from afar.la Satis slays On the fifth day of clouds SS go | ga oS jus sunflowers Soh 399 Osea ys whisper with lowered heads.The spider 2 Saige gS 41S ual 4 ul L eyes its handiwork with satisfaction LS gag3 Gn between the cherry and the mulberry tree.LLG go aad 93 The sun beams Ny og adhe sh gil Gad its first golden rays SpsShe Go gS ys oop yp on the majestic mantle that is the spider’s web.sabe by Snow descends haus os yl 5 from the black clouds Sys pass dy with the whiteness of snow.lS hj postin! jue N58 pas AS gy gs aa Sy Inside the shrine I thought a thousand thoughts and when I left it had snowed.pgs oly I Sanat From far away a dandelion ssi dS ys Jas ds deigned to settle on the pond 29985 IS GI BIGT without rippling the water.feyrcets Gently gates oul y the spider ene is shooed away gas Saal oS 3) from the old nun’s hat.Ladaaly 538 gos The nuns? discussion sistas Gol concludes nothing. plait uw Eventually cual Ng 3 9 it is time to sleep.bay The snow al lai pigs Hag 8 shoveled right off the roof se with a snow shovel — laa a> how undignified.SS) obs 5, On the clothesline Blows Ge by snowflake linen hangs. pus S198 Gal ya In this cold air seal gS SBS Lass 95 Gul snow doesn’t dry up Sy so fast.olan £515. In a snow-covered field oS eopsb the black-hooded crow By joan gy cubs yo looks at itself dazed.re ete oligs 382 Nights long days long life short.a yStg Saw The stray dog a gigs OF washes its body Cote OIL ys in spring rain.ual, The nun SoS igs us caresses the silk fabric: radu pl sda gh yp would it do $93 95 Gl yp Cel slo for a gown?aust Gas ys Su The dog lies in ambush 4298 Glgiil 5a at the end of the alley 3g 256 ShsS slp for the new beggar.ad Sus The sleeping dog sakes 9 ais gs SL aia keeps opening an eye and closing it again ale cade Gans oly to watch the pesky mosquito.SS BL Hail lands foyd Stal abi yp on the sparrow’s egg — Sa 95 slosh ys jay the flight of a tiny bird.sigs Flying over a voleanic peak Sg pushy guslan ya Gsiaud the dove QUABAGT 5415 318 ys jg yy alia composed its first epic song.649927 OLE CAIUS glad git 5 CaS sland gS. Cake vat 2 Azure rain on cherry blossoms. Tinted blossoms at spring sunset.gah gongs Soot from the candle AIS gs ols blackens 151g 3 a8 Sls the butterfly’s colorful wing.San ga Al gay In the community of cherry trees SBS one does not blossom ALS OLR jo een 2 by itself, alone.Gs SLT slays As the rain comes down ad gS jays sunflowers Nb a5 hj alae put their beads together.Suu sie The scarecrow 2 5igs shui getting irrigated Jill gle 5a in the middle of the field.Lael IS One of the nuns oS Bj said something. Sasshd ads The rest broke sis (slau Ls into loud laughter,gi goals Silainn 93 Two dragonflies, one male one female BIS gs ad JUS 3! pass in the air dogs gS js Gls 5s among the oak trees.Angry confrontation between two prostitutes leaving the church AGS poe on Sunday afternoon.We A heap of oogus Gash discarded tires: 2588) Se a decrepit dog ahs ily standing watch alas free of charge.oj os8y The earthquake Geos oles destroyed 1 olSayge wale jLOt even the ants? grain silo.ap ae it 3! HS od aS Aly evens) Out of a hundred apples ten have worms — ten apples to a worm.So 9S a The little apple apt agd yee floats spinning S395 syltsl FL) 93 i! at the base of a little waterfall.p89 Sus The stray dog silage ao wags its tail 298 ple Gly for the blind passerby.iS) glide gus Colorful fruits i gpolans Gh} 9S gus c gSau ys in the silence of black-clad mourners.Ge golaw GI yI9S gan Qoa 9 In the assembly of black-clad mourners S058 the child 28.2 gle S dod gazes boldly at a persimmon.OS 58 ‘The grave digger Suis go yIS 5) caus stops work laa 53595 le to take a bite yas 9 of bread and cheese.59) eels The spider’s harvest ogasie jis of two days 2 gts hey is left in ruins gy Si 5 QL by the old housekeeper’s broom.is go 5d This time Sgusie the spider sb onl begins 1, gasti jIs to weave Casas yal slo ys ys on the silk drape.SS go ole The moon breaks oye uli jo against the window frame — 31593 S095 GAS lune sound of a newborn erying.(oils S095 aie A few schoolchildren Silos yas 8 98 have put their ears Sg sie iti BS ps on the deserted train track.UGS Suu pie A lone scarecrow Aub 93 gt hte) yo in an idle field tis 5 Jal gt as winter sets in.Oy Birds BS ge 55 are playing Si jis yuo 9 Cas sg on the scarecrow’s hands and face. Saul oss) STAs IS Work must be over. aSy see yids 99 pS gb sla Soil shal ys Oly 39 S098 Two bundred-sheet notebooks one sharpened pencil one backpack full of advice — a child well on bis way.pitas Says The schoolchild 6395 ey 9 29.4521 walks on the old rail AGLABL is, 50 ali 9 clumsily mimicking 1 pla stan the sound of the train.ou sales lg ved Sy Se phe 5005 54 9 lw 559 Gag! The wind moves the scarecrow’s tattered robe to dance — first day of the new yearPLES Ele 6 ga 95 85 Sags Seay In the dim light of the switchman’s lamp the child is drawing while the father sleeps.35 S98 Auta Cais 5) SIS co oS Sy ein Seoul p The child with a fever looks longingly through the windowpane at the snowman.Sa35 The child y's gles 6 U8, on her best bebavior Sage with the doll. Globe ai... yale The mother, well...Oljboybi A drop of rain abit 5.9) 2 ag gs pt slides over the windowpane. SpA ga So 95 caus A little ink-stained hand 1, js ahs .ge sly wipes the dew aad 65 95 i! off the window's face. M1255 6 go 8 ue Hundreds of fresh walnuts yh Sa 95 GI bI 53 around a small child olan 9 Sags glia with little stained hands.44 Glas carrey Ina temple iy Jl sean 9 158 one thousand three hundred years old cele the clock cola 4 ais Cada reads seven minutes to seven.peels The watch Bl ge JIS i! on the blind man’s wrist nb oye cms 59) has stopped.Gabay The blind man aa paige cases asks the schoolebild (gibinass 5395 5) for the time. Msiota The villager 298.23 29d Ga returns to his land oles Sats sl ys for spring seeding — Su fia ds (gAlSS ad gas not even a half-glance at the scarecrow.Saw JE} G18 IS Coal miners: sha alas eas not one has seen fy gitlinwe 5B ps Gand SL the first winter snow.Sia JE) Gare Gijny Collapse of the coal mine — suds (5A 9 9 Las jg flight of hundreds of white butterflies.Sys ons The snow’s whiteness 5 hy Sian JE 5 GIS IS aa strikes the eyes of the coal miners sae Neg yd alsa emerging from the mine.ABS gs SEAS gS The more | think ice the less I understand Vy Sys Gasp daa Gul alo the reason for all the whiteness of the snow.Laas, In the end ae ica Gil gi dy the nuns plait jus could not agree SogSI3E BLISS) ju ys on the color of their dining room.AS 52 S545 9d atl aa Gal Jala Nyogsie 9 ales guise JIS ya The more I think the less I understand the reason for all this order and majesty in the spider’s work.PSs SG AS gd The more I think aaah the less I understand Jy Slyals ge dad Gal Jala the reason for a mother’s love lag for her children.Sige S545 55 The more I think stig the less I understand 1 Sau 5 loli g ad Gal Jala the reason for the dog to be so faithful. IsaAS io S545 Gg The more I think asedgal the less | understand the reason 1 Uiaid 56 Glia sang Jas for calluses on the hands of the empty handed.AS go S545 Gy The more | think asedigat the less I understand Vy caida (A 5 Jula why the truth should be so bitter.PS 52 SS AS gS asdiga ad Gal Salo Vy olaises sah The more | think the less I understand why the Milky Way is so distant.AS igs Sas Gd The more | think adie the less I understand a8 Sal Jato the reason Ny S503) ua to fear death so much.Gh Ad wal gd palais Li Will my ears ever hear again Jy jglae sadldag, Glidb laws the sound of the nearby river's rebellious tide SLaS 5 Gad Gi alsa as the snows thaw?aaaue ARLE As AS 66S 3 On ST The last leaf stuck to the branch adage aaghagh clings to the promise 1) sales GLbail ga sLALS of glimpsing spring buds. = 160pasyy 4S. Glg3 5 When I started up out of sleep 252 shes Ugh aa ys it was just the beginning of spring asa no more ag no less.hp Cul oats BS. The jet has sketched a line coi lanl ys across the blue sky 2 Jl 395 Gatgl go on the first day of the new year.uss 55335, The honeybee a gdiggs uit gtse is amazed GALL IS jae 3! by the fragrance of an unknown flowerBoke Ob Spring rain SS 2h fills the pigeon’s nest 1 Bas GOY with water. Caual AB) lga GLLAS 4 5 gas The pigeon is out watching the spring.Lagu ys Won't the swallows 5a 8 543 3L Slaw! ever come back SaaS gla this year?be The snake yo Caualy 9a a ALES gs without a glance to left or right. LS 436 walerrice crosses the streettis g0 95395 gi The train shrieks Siausliss 9 and comes to a balt. OAT ay 2 GBS Gail g ye A butterfly sleeps on the rail.Hy S035 aS The cry of the child — SS 6 gl pad oat ys IH a bird song accompanies it gals gama 6 until the mother returns.Aah Sols Sha A crescent moon of the first night 3 galigs Coal po is being pampered lads asl by a cottony piece of cloud.alsa gol ue) Gad The plowshare digs the earth gS sbloigad gad 9 and the ox has no idea Vy tals 9 caus ajo ala what caused the pain in his limbs.shes au 5a The scattering of a few withered autumn leaves (yas SAR S yp ie Nye in the spring breeze.igs Yh ols yo 5 gilig As the moon’ disk rises oly gtd 3 in the east 2S ig Gl ala my feelings of love wax just a little,Sh pigs usd aula isis ‘My shoes get soaked age alsa as I cross an pends 3) the clover field.pais plaadigd Sheaves of wheat Baw eagh a twist Cote sas in the spring thunderstorm.1 oabs Jl (50595 slaue dogs Gauls Sue 29 123! Hips pot ys A dog responds from afar to a she-jackal’s howls in the moonlit night.sis Gl Uap 5E gb cas yo gags lg adie suo haw path Jo 59 The mirror breaks ina plain woman’s hand — a hundred streams welling up in the dead of a dark night.all My shadow 25.5 tl jad Go keeps me company bigs ats 55 this moonlit evening.eatlige WO aah 595 city dg 3 alaisile ulus! 2 paige duals sat As the sun rises in the east my feelings of love wane just a little.s398heen Ee SE gi at Gale pot Satie pile Gly The lamp stays lit in the night of storm. The lover's pleas come to naught.Sa 95 Gailge The little bud 1y 398055 go ale d announces itself loudly LS ge Shas SE Ghee 5! from inside its hard sheath of cherry wood. = 180Sages JS The bowl of the bignonia geiege fills up Gol Olb 3! with spring rain.alee Lb Spring rain BEE Loe gd pours in a rush 122 Gls 5 onto dirty dishes. eeeers) A young girl 1 gibtinus wis gs SBS dries her hands BS op tela with ber floral skirt.2g y9 shea ys Glgiy La jan Within their folds, the clover buds have hidden 1) pAlBame slau many morning dewdrops.ila ga Gus gad Nobody knows S25 lage that the little stream od Gldadis Jo ja gcigs syle as gushing from the heart of a small fountain syla lays saad is headed for the sea.Olga SH gi BL The singing nightingale gah gs oul, is driven away SgHialgd 5556 543 3) by the shrill cry of a man balf asleep Sole avowsn 33 at spring dawn.dau AL gh gaan The broken soda-pop bottle ao fills up Boke OL 3! with spring rain.HS gs a ual Atl (6S ye OLS 9 JS OIIG4 Geo The horse stamps his hoof on an unknown flower among thousands of flowers and weeds.