From the spring of 1986 onwards, Vera’s abdomen, stomach, or something thereabouts, hurt. It didn’t hurt all the time. It hurt sometimes. It didn’t even always hurt in the same way. At times, it hurt more; at other times, it hurt less. They thought: it happens. One’s stomach hurts sometimes. It will go away.
Because my heart
is honey and soft wax
flesh craving a fingerprint
or just a dent––
I dream, defer, despair,
and in love’s hundred prisons,
die and die again.
And other Iranian noblewomen like Padshah Khatun and Qotloghshah Khatun and others have ridden the steed of their talent in this field in whatever way they could. I imitated them and dared to compose poetry too[…]
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Photo Credit: Móni Szűcs
Poem by Jahan Malek Khatun, Library of Congress