Life required some craziness | Rasool Yoonan

Life required some craziness,
But we went too crazy.
They kicked us out of all cafes.
We went too crazy and forgot everything
except for how to laugh.

We laughed at everything,
and laughing became our job.

When you are crazy,
even if you don’t laugh,
your scars will.
 

Translator | Siavash Saadlou is a writer, literary translator, editor, and interpreter. He is the authorized translator of the minimalist Persian poet Rasool Yoonan, and some of his translations of Yoonan are forthcoming in Washington Square Review and Blue Lyra Review. Saadlou is an MFA Creative Writing student and a teaching fellow at Saint Mary’s College

Rasool Yoonan was born in 1969 in Urmia, Iran. His first collection of poetry titled Good Day My Dear was published in 1998. His further collections include Concert in Hell, I Was a Bad Boy, Carrying the Piano Down from the Stairs of an Icy Hotel, and Be Careful; Ants Are Coming. With his poetry drenched in minimalism, suspense and wit, Yoonan is currently the most widely read living poet insid