art ~ spirit ~ transformation
e*lix*ir

e*lix*ir   #12
Ridvan 2021
Translations
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Editorial

The Intimacy of Art

The Writing Life

‘I Go to Paper’: A Conversation with Ruth Forman by Andréana Elise

Poetry

Anthony A. Lee

Translations

“If I Should Gaze Upon Your Face” by Tahirih
Chinese translation by Zijing Pan DiCenzo

Essays

In the Noble, Sacred Place: One Rainy Day in a Holy City by Sandra Lynn Hutchison

Interviews

Anne Gordon Perry on Writing for Film

Personal Reflections on Bahá’í Texts

O Nightingales of God! by James Braun

Artist Profile

Benjamin Hatcher, Dancer by Joyce Litoff

Art

Nadema Agard
Beth Yazhari

Comic

Ruhi & Riaz by Eira

Voices of Iran

The Cherry Orchard by Paria Bakhshi
A Wedding in Prison by Melika Rezvani

Looking Back on Books

In the Eyes of His Beloved Servants: The Story Behind the Stories by J. Michael Kafes
How One Jewish Woman Poet Remade the Wor(l)d: Alicia Ostriker’s The Little Space: Poems Selected and New (1989-1996) by Sandra Lynn Hutchison


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James Braun

脸对脸
塔希丽

If I Should Gaze Upon Your Face

by Tahirih

Chinese Translation by Zijing Pan DiCenzo
English Translation by Shahin Mowzoon and Sandra Lynn Hutchison

但得与君两相见,脸对脸,眼对眼,
胆敢倾吐心中怨,一行行,一点点。



我似东风漂又荡,东南西北皆寻遍,
屋栋栋,门扇扇,巷深深,路漫漫。



年深日久不见君,绵延血泪污双眼。
河汤汤,溪潺潺,泉涓涓,水涟涟。



唇若红英发如蕊,遮住不得见君面。
一脉幽香花千万,一盏盏,一瓣瓣。



眉若青山眼如波,我心如鸟为君乱。
摄我灵兮捕我魂,一弦弦,一念念。



忧思欲绝心如织,君恩纵横经纬间。
一丝丝,一线线,一缕缕,一段段。



寻遍四方寻我心,原来君在我心田。
一层层,一叠叠,一幕幕,一遍遍。

If I should gaze upon your face
And our eyes meet, yours and mine,
I would recount my sorrows then —
Trace each point, each verse, each line.

Oh how I yearn to see your face!
As zephyrs blow to search, to find,
From house to house, from door to door,
Each street, each path, each hidden place.

How your remoteness rends my heart!
My blood flows forth like rivers, seas
the color of your comely lips,
From fount to fount, from stream to stream.

Your honeyed cheeks, always in bloom,
Offer up such sweet perfume,
Your mouth, your eyes, that noble brow,
Your love has caught that dove — my soul!

Affinity — heart with heart,
Deep well of kindness, being’s core,
Affections my sad heart must weave
Into the fabric of my soul,

Strand by strand, twine by twine,
Thread to thread, with textures fine.
In her heart Tahirih sought
And found naught
                                but you.

Within each leaf, each fold, each veil,
                                within was you
                                    and only you
                                        within was always you.

 

Zijing Pan DiCenzo

Bio:   Zijing Pan DiCenzo is a Chinese writer and translator who currently lives in Calais, Maine with her husband Anthony Mark DiCenzo. She received her B.A. in international journalism from the Communication University of China and her M.A. in film directing from the Beijing Film Academy. As a lecturer, she taught documentary filmmaking, screen writing and translation for film and television at the Communication University of China as well as courses exploring the stories embedded in religion at the Beijing Film Academy. She writes both traditional and free verse poetry and has translated Rumi, Jami, Omar Khayyam, Robert Frost, Longfellow, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth and Tahirih into Chinese. Of all her translations, she considers Bahá’u’lláh’s Ode of Dove and Tahirih’s Face to Face, the most important. You can read some of her poems and short stories on her Wechat blog “—树之叶”.