absence

I've written a few posts since the last one but left them all unpublished. One is about labor, class, and economic power, and the difference between making a five-figure salary in the US and making a five-figure salary in Pakistan. Another is about calling out colleagues for making jokes that contribute to oppression. Those are difficult topics to write about thoughtfully and sensitively, and the former in particular is one that makes me uncomfortable in ways that I'm still working out. So for one reason or another I haven't felt comfortable putting them out there. Not sure whether that'll change.

Tonight I'm back to reading Faiz Ahmed Faiz, so here's Baran Farooqi's translation of "View (2)":

Road, shadows, trees, houses and doors, edges of the sky dome

Upon the terrace, the moon bared her breast, gently

As someone loosens the strings of her dress, slowly

Under the edge of the sky dome, the still blue Nile of shadows

Forming an indigo lake

In the lake floated ever so quietly the bubble of a leaf

Floated a moment, moved away, burst, softly

Very softly, the cool color of wine, very light

Poured into my glass, slowly

The wine glass and the wine, the wine jar, the roses of your hands

Like the pattern of a distant dream

Formed on its own and faded, gradually

My heart repeated some word of love, softly

You said, "Softly."

The moon bent down and said

"Yet more softly."