‘They sniff your breath
lest you have said: I love you.
lest you have said: I love you.
They sniff your heart--
(such strange times, my sweet)
(such strange times, my sweet)
and they flog love at every checkpoint.
We must hide love in the backroom. In the cold of this dead-end crooked road
they stoke their pyres
with our poems and songs. Don’t risk thinking,
with our poems and songs. Don’t risk thinking,
for these are strange times, my sweet. The man who beats at the door
in the nadir of night,
has come to kill the lamp.
has come to kill the lamp.
We must hide the light in the backroom.’
- Excerpt from Ahmad Shamlou’s ‘In This Dead-End Road’ - Translated by Sholeh Wolpe
Written for and Premiered by Distractfold Ensemble.
Recorded by Murat Colak on November 2, at CCRMA Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.