We’re not supposed to stay here for good | Rasool Yoonan

We’re not supposed to stay here for good.
Stop thinking about the clouds.
Get up.
Let’s turn this bed into a boat.
We can make good sails out of your white blouse.

I know the sea is far away,
and making boats is not what we’re good at.
Still—get up—so that we realize the delusion of this game.

We will depart here by the time our lives are over;
we’re not supposed to stay here for good.   

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