The Untranslatable: Zhaghzhagh

By Thomas Page

The Untranslatable

This is a series of poems of words that do not directly translate into English. I have tried to capture the essence of the word in a poem.

Standing in a post open to the cold

With the frosty air seeping in like the adder

Circling my gloved hand poisoning my fingers.

I am a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

No one is coming to relieve me

With the black and blue night welcoming no light

Surfing into the hallway like the flowing tide.

I am a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

My mouth becomes the dragon

With the heat escaping from my tongue

And crashing into my teeth which chatter.

I am a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

The teeth dance the dans macabre

Following the reaper’s fiddle

Into the borealis.

I am a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

My face is flush with the fears of the frozen

And the anger of the wronged

Lost to the great white expanse.

I am a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

In the morning they will only hear my teeth

Calling out like a beacon in the dawning morn

Without a trace of its captain.

I was a sentinel alone with the holly and the gold.

 

Language: Farsi*

*Many online dictionaries will state that “zhaghzhagh” is a “Persian” word. The language is usually referred to as Farsi.