[John Cole]

Here's a Poem by the translator of Hikmet's poem--in case you're interested.



Visionary Company

Last night when our son said, "The two of you
are beautiful," I knew he wasn't falling
for how the shadows at our candle-lit

dinner for three erased the lines the years
have raked across our faces, but perhaps
buttering us up & learning to trade

words for love. Putting myself in his place,
I sat back at the right hand of my father,
who manfully watched me play his opposite

versus his understudy, as when, my hair
silvered for King Lear's Kent like his, it happened
I kissed him good-bye on the mouth for good,

& across the blond table from my mother,
whose blue shadow-box hung over my head
& in whose teal-flecked eyes I could do no wrong,

wrong as I was in so much that I did
or failed to do, like telling her the fall
she died I'd be a father in the spring.

I saw my parents vanish in the time
it took our candle to burn down to nothing
—both, to my mind, beautiful in that light.

--Randy Blasing