Whatever I torture this history, it does not yield

By Mohsen Hosseinkhani

Translated by Tahere Forsat Safaei

Whatever I torture this history,
It does not yield.

In the body of that black,
How many broken ribs of his father are suffering?
In the chest of this red,
How many bullets
Have killed the name of his tribe?

The throat of Nishapur
Is still in the claws of Genghis,
And we still
Eat bread
From that mill
That turns with the river of blood.

History does not yield,
I do not teach it a lesson.

I stretch my hand to the blue veins,
I feel
The flow of centuries
Under my skin.

Every century that has fallen in the ditches,
Fallen beside the trees of the street,
Fallen in the recesses of ruins.

Every century
Is a tainted syringe,
And each time
It plunges its needle into our languor.

Author’s note: Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, launched a devastating campaign across Asia during the early 13th century. In 1220, after the Mongols faced resistance in Nishapur, they retaliated brutally, leading to the city’s destruction. The attack on Nishapur not only resulted in a large number of casualties but also marked a significant moment in the Mongol conquest. The city’s destruction symbolized the broader impact of Genghis Khan’s invasions, which caused immense loss of life and cultural upheaval across the region. The poem reflects the haunting memory of that violence and the ongoing trauma experienced through the lens of history.

Mohsen Hosseinkhani was born in Iran in 1988. He began reciting poems professionally in cultural institutes in 2007. To date, he has published nine collections of his poetry and many of his poems have been translated into Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish. The poems selected here, in versions by Tahereh Safaei and Imogen Wade in consultation with the poet himself, are the first to have been translated into English.

Tahereh Safaei was born in in 1961. He holds a PhD in English Literature and has been living in Iran for the last five years. During this time he has been translating  the poetry  of the prominent Iranian poet Mohsen Hosseinkhani. With Mohsen Hosseinkhani’s assistance and in collaboration with the English poet imogen Wade, Tahereh is currently preparing a selection of Hosseinkhani’s poems for publication in the UK.