A  Watercress Pot



Let it fill you as if you were a sprout pot
And grow like fragrant watercress
Out of your hands.
The New Year will come,*
And you will sit
At the cloth of the "seven s's".
You will look in the mirror
And along with the red goldfish
You will be freed
From the confines of the fishbowl.
And you will pass
From the lonely ash tree,
The stately hyacinth,
The anxious garlic,
The drunken vinegar,
And the happy silver coin.
And along with the bard of Shiraz*
You will be filled with the sound of love.
And so, why be sad?
When the Thirteenth Day comes
You'll go with the flowing water
And speak to the sky and the earth
Of the beautiful moments of love.

Majid Naficy
July 28, 1995

* On Nowruz or the Persian New Year which coincides with the first day of spring, it is traditional to spread on a cloth seven items, the names of which all begin with the letter sin ("s"). These "seven s's" are typically ash tree, hyacinth, garlic, vinegar, a coin, sprouts
(wheat, watercress, or other), and sumac.  Other items put on the cloth (not beginning with sin) are a goldfish (in a fishbowl), a mirror, and either a Koran or a copy of Hafez's collection of poems.  Thirteen days later, in order to avoid bad luck, people must go out for picnics and cast their sprouts into streams.

* An allusion to a verse of Hafez, the fourteenth century Persian poet.