I was born in a city
whose alleys all reached the sea,
the tight, narrow alleys of childhood
that ran into the arms of white waves,
houses centuries old,
the windows of my youth
opening onto open waters,
and people of music and waves and legend,
living people of the shore
who were not free.
One day I fled from Bushehr,
and another day I returned to it again
in another corner of the world,
in Basel,
in a city whose alleys all reach the river,
still and quiet alleys,
old houses, centuries old,
breathing the living murmur of the river,
nights of lights along the shore,
days of music,
the flowing current of life,
and calm, floating people.
One day you flee from your birthplace
and another day you return to it again,
a day when it has grown more beautiful,
a day when you can fall in love in its alleys,
hold your beloved’s hands without fear,
and one night, beside its lit waters,
be kissed
without having feared
an unforgivable sin,
a day when you can be naked
and give yourself to the sun
and to the flowing waters.
And now I have returned to my birthplace.
Through the old alleys
I have made my way to the river’s living current,
a river that branches from the sea of my childhood.
At the edge of the lit waters
I sit watching the white swans.
A young man with a guitar sings: Take me home,
and again, a thousand times again, I think of home.
Where is home?!
And I wonder:
do not all the waters of the world meet in the end?
Andisheh || Basel 2024
