<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><header style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><h1 itemprop="headline" class="entry-title articleHeadline" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: normal; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Doubts and a Hesitation</span></font></h1></header><div class="post-content" style="margin-top: 36px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; -webkit-hyphens: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Even your name<br>I have doubts about<br>and about the trees<br>about their branches, if perhaps<br>they are roots<br>and we have been living<br>all these years underground.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; -webkit-hyphens: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Who has dislocated the world?<br>and why are birds circling in our stomachs?<br>Why does a pill defer my birth?<br>For years we’ve been living underground<br>and perhaps<br>on a day in my seventies I’ll be born<br>and feel that death<br>is a shirt we all come to put on,<br>whose buttons we can either fasten<br>or leave undone…<br>a man may roll up his sleeves<br>or he might…</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; -webkit-hyphens: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">I am<br>a captive man’s conjectures<br>about the seasons behind the wall.</span></p><div><span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Garous Abdolmalekian</span></div><div><span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(translated from the Persian by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey)</span></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>