In Candle’s Words

Translator’s note:

What you are reading below are thirteen Rubāʿiyāt of Farīd-al-dīn Aṭṭār (c. 1145 – c. 1221). Attar is one of the most noted writers and mystics in Iran’s history, who directly influenced many prominent poets of his time. In the West, the best-known work by Attar is Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds), which has been translated into English by distinguished authors like Edward FitzGerald (1889), and Sholeh Wolpé (2017).

I chose to translate these poems from Moḵhtār-nāma (The Book of Choice), chapter 48: “On Candle’s Words.” All pieces in this chapter begin with: “The candle appeared and said.” Moḵhtār-nāma is a collection of Attar’s Rubāʿiyāt that has fifty thematic chapters and contains more than 2000 quatrains.

My motivation for translating these eight-century-old poems stems from the thematic approach of these pieces and their motif openings, which seemed very similar to modern poems to me.

To learn more about the concept of the candle in Persian literature and Attar's view, the “Candle” article in Encyclopedia Iranica can be of help: “The light of the candle is symbolic of physical beauty and, on another level, of spiritual radiance… The weak light of the candle provides a contrast to the brightness of the sun. Because of the shape of its flame, like a tongue, the candle is a teller of secrets.... The burning of the candle gave rise to more dramatic imagery. Drops of liquid wax are the tears of the suffering lover, the smoke his sighs, and the flame itself his passion. But, when the candle represents the beloved, then the lover is the moth (parvāna), which cannot resist the light and is drawn into the flame and consumed. The candle is also a source of paradox: It comes to life only after its head is cut off, destroys itself by living, and weeps (molten wax) while laughing (a reference to the flickering flame).” With this symbolic understanding of the candle in mind, Attar's quatrains take on a deeper meaning.

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۱

شمع آمد و گفت: دل گرفت از خلقم

کافتاد ز خلق، آتشی در فرقم

چون زار نسوزم و نگریم بر خویش

آتش بر فرق و ریسمان در حلقم

۲

شمع آمد و گفت: پا و سر باید سوخت

هر لحظه به آتش دگر باید سوخت

وقتی که به جمع روشنی بیش دهم

گر خواهم و گر نه بیشتر باید سوخت

۳

شمع آمد و گفت: یارِ من خواهد بود

پروانه که جان‌سپارِ من خواهد بود

اول چو بشویمش به اشکی که مراست

آخر لحدش کنارِ من خواهد بود

۴

شمع آمد و گفت: بنده می‌باید بود

در سوز، میان خنده می‌باید بود

سر می‌ببرند هر زمانم در طشت

پس می‌گویند زنده می‌باید بود

۵

شمع آمد و گفت: در دلم خونم سوخت

کآتش همه‌شب درون و بیرونم سوخت 

این طرفه که آتشی که در سر دارم

چون آب ز سر گذشت، افزونم سوخت

۶

شمع آمد و گفت: این تن لاغر همه سوخت

رفتم که مرا ز پای تا سر همه سوخت

خشکم همه از دست شد و تر همه سوخت

اشکی دو سه نم بماند و دیگر همه سوخت

۷

شمع آمد و گفت: می‌فروزم همه شب

کز سوختن است همچو روزم همه شب

هر چند زبان چرب دارم همه روز

از چرب زبانی است سوزم همه شب

۸

شمع آمد و گفت: بر تن خویشتنم 

دل می‌سوزد که سخت شد سوختنم

با هر که در این واقعه فریاد کنم

سر بُرَّد و آتشی نهد در دهنم

۹

شمع آمد و گفت: جانِ من می‌سوزد

وز جان، تنِ ناتوانِ من می‌سوزد

سوگند همی خورم به جان و سرِ خویش

وز سوگندم زبانِ من می‌سوزد

۱۰

شمع آمد و گفت: چون من‌ام دشمنِ من

کو کس که به گازی ببُرد گردنِ من؟

گر بُکْشَنْدم، تنم بماند زنده

ور زنده بمانم، بنماند تنِ من

۱۱

شمع آمد و گفت: عمر خوش‌خوش بگذشت

دورم همه در سوز مشوش بگذشت

گر آب ز سر در گذرد سهل بود

این است بلا کز سرم آتش بگذشت

۱۲

شمع‌ آمد و گفت: بر نمی‌باید خاست

تا پیش تو سرگذشت برگویم راست

نی نی که زبان من بسوزد ز آتش

گر برگویم ز سرگذشتی که مراست

۱۳

شمع آمد وگفت: جان من می‌ببرند

وز من همه دوستان من می‌ببرند

ناگفتنی‌ای نگفته‌ام در همه عمر

پس از چه سبب زبان من می‌ببرند؟

1

The candle appeared and said:

With people, I’m upset; thanks to them, there’s fire upon my head.

How can I not flame feebly to shed tears over my body?

With this fire in my head;

While in my throat I feel a thread.

2

The candle appeared and said:

Top to toe                                                        I should burn.

With a new flame, then and now                    I should burn.

As I shine more in a crowd, willy-nilly, more and more

I should burn.

3

The candle appeared and said:

My lover, she will be… the moth, my devotee.

If I baptize her with my tears, first

At last, her grave is

beside me immersed.

4

The candle appeared and said:

You should be a servant.

You should smile in the midst of torment.

Every time they cut off my head in a tray;

then stay alive!                             they say.

5

The candle appeared and said: 

In my heart, my blood is seared;

since the fire burned me, in and out, throughout the night.

Surprising, what I had in my head, the flame,

burned me more, as drowned I became.

6

The candle appeared and said:

My whole weak body burned.

I’m crumbled to ash, from foot to head;

that’s the reason why I went.

The dry burned and the wet burned;

just some tears left, else to dust, all returned.

7

The candle appeared and said:

Through the night, I burn bright.

As I blaze, all my night looks like the sunlight.

Days, I hold my oily tongue and nights

being oily-tongue        makes me ignite. 

8

The candle appeared and said:

I feel pity for my body

since my burning’s become wild.

On such an occasion at someone if I whine,

he beheads me and puts fire in mouth of mine.

9

The candle appeared and said: 

I feel fire in my soul and

my weak body’s burning, owing to the soul.

I swear on my life and my head;

As I swear, my tongue burns in whole.

10

The candle appeared and said: 

Since I'm my own enemy,

where’s somebody with a wick trimmer to behead me?

If they kill me, my body stays alive and

my body dies, if I revive.

11

The candle appeared and said:

Little by little, life passed me by.

My turn is over within a desperate cry.

It’s easy to keep your head     under water;

the hardship is above my head, I have fire.

12

The candle appeared and said:

I shouldn’t stand before you to tell you

what I’ve been through.

No! No! If I tell you the truth

my tongue burns anew.

13

The candle appeared and said:

They come to kill me and

my mates are disappointed in me.

All my life, I kept the secrets, I've never said something wrong;

so why do they            cut my tongue?

–Farīd-al-dīn Aṭṭār, tr. Ali Asadollahi

Ali Asadollahi is an Iranian poet, translator, and editor based in Tehran. He holds an M.A. in Persian Language and Literature from the University of Tehran and is the author of six books of Persian poetry. Over the past two decades, his poems have appeared in numerous leading Iranian literary journals, where he has also served as poetry editor for several publications. A permanent member of the Iranian Writers’ Association (est. 1968), he has received several literary awards, including the Iranian Journalists’ Poetry Prize and the Young Poets’ Book of the Year Award, both in 2010. His poetry and translations have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Epoch, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Consequence, and The Los Angeles Review, among others.