This short poem by Iranian poet Mohammad Bagher Kolahi Ahari demonstrates the writer’s strengths. He writes with concision and clarity, telling a brief story in a manner that is both exact and understated. The apparat simplicity of the poem is a deception, in a hand full of lines the poet conveys a whole life, with its hopes and disappointments, rather like a miniature. Pulling off this balance between simplicity and depth is extremely tricky.
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