Poetry, Translations

The Oasis of Now

by Sohrab Sepehri, Kazim Ali, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati

The Oasis of Now is the first U.S. book publication of the works of Sohrab Sepehri (1928–1980), one of the major Iranian poets of the twentieth century. Well-versed in Buddhism, mysticism, and Western traditions, Sepehri mingled Western concepts with Eastern ones, creating a poetry unsurpassed in the history of Persian literature. In Iran, his Persian verses are often recited in public gatherings and lines from them were used as slogans by the protesters in 2009. This first full-length American volume collects poems from three of Sepehri’s most important books, including the highly acclaimed Water’s Footfall.

“Bright Existence”

Sky, blue.
Water, even bluer!

I am on the veranda, Rana by the pond in the garden.

She is washing clothes.
Leaves are trickling down.
“What a sad season,” my mother said this morning.
I responded, “Life is an apple best eaten unpeeled.”

Our neighbor weaves at her window, humming a soft tune.
I am reading the Vedas,
sketching pebbles, birds, clouds—

Full sun.
Starlings flock,
nasturtiums burst into blossom.

And me, cracking open a pomegranate I think to myself,
“If only the seeds of the heart could be so transparent,”

when the juice spurts out and splashes into my eyes,
vermilion tears trickling down.

My mother bursts out laughing
and Rana too.

Publication Date: November 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-938160-22-6

FormatPaperback

Publication DateNovember 5, 2013

ISBN978-1-938160-22-6

$16.00

About the Author

Sohrab Sepehri

Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) is considered one of the most Iranian poets of the twentieth century. The first U.S. publication of his work, The Oasis of Now, was translated by Mohammad Jafar Mahallati and Kazim Ali, and was published by BOA Editions in November 2013. An acclaimed painter, Sepehri published numerous volumes during his lifetime and traveled widely throughout the world, including Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, China and Japan, the United States and South America. Many of his poems were influenced by his relationship with nature, and his studies of Eastern philosophy and visual arts and were often composed in a cadence similar to spoken language, considered a radical innovation at the time.

Kazim Ali

Kazim Ali is the recipient of the 2025 Poetry Foundation Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism for Black Buffalo Woman: An Introduction to the Poetry and Poetics of Lucille Clifton. His poetry collections include Inquisition; Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of the Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One’s Blue; and the cross-genre works Bright Felon, Wind Instrument, and Sukun: New and Selected Poems. His novels include The Secret Room: A String Quartet and Indian Winter, and his hybrid memoirs include Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies and Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. An accomplished translator, editor, and critic, Ali is the founding editor of Nightboat Books and serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. He lives in San Diego, California.

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati is a Presidential Scholar of Religion at Oberlin College where he has taught courses on Islam, the Quran, and the Ethics of Forgiveness and Peacemaking. From 1987-1989, he served as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations and was instrumental in brokering the peace agreement that ended the war between Iran and Iraq. He is currently working on a book project entitled Friendship in Muslim Cultures: Theory and Practice. He co-translated Sohrab Sepehri’s selected poems, The Oasis of Now, with Kazim Ali and was published by BOA Editions in 2013.