“Love Arrived and How Red” by Simin Behbahani is a poignant work of modern Persian poetry exploring love, ageing, desire and the bittersweet feeling of love arriving too late. Presented here in English as part of Persian Poetry After Dark, Behbahani’s poem is reimagined through cinematic downtempo, dark organic electronica and trip-hop. This English musical adaptation brings the emotional intensity and vivid imagery of one of Iran’s most celebrated modern poets into a contemporary musical setting, introducing her poetry to a wider international audience.
- Genre: Downtempo, Dark Organic Electronica, Trip-hop
- Music & Lyric Adaptation: Tony Zohari
- Language: English
- Poet: Simin Behbahani
- Original Language: Persian
- Themes: Iranian Poetry | Persian Poetry After Dark | In English
Lyric: Love Arrived and How Red
Love arrived and how red?
Although it is too late;
The rose has grown in the snow,
O how delightful it does glow!
Love, O love! O love! O love!
How far you sit on the peak above!
My legs, O how they tremble! Behold
My hands, O how wrinkled and old!
I am afraid, I fear, O mate!
For by the breeze I vibrate;
Love, the phantom of doubt, bound
Is sleeping in the pound.
The young cactus is grown
In a tropical zone;
But I come from polar plain,
My heart is cold, barren;
The cocoon is thicker than the content,
As if my heart has swollen and spent.
She yearns to fly, she does desire
That which is jailed in the mire;
But her wings have stalled and rotten,
It is too late, too late to batten.
Love, O love!
O love, O love!
O love, O love!
“too late…”
That which flew with passion,
Her mind full of conviction,
Poor of credulity and belief,
Is bound to remain in unbelief.
She who romped and pranced in the dell,
Was swift like the quick gazelle;
Now tamed, silent and quiet,
Like the lamb she bows her head.
Her proud crown and her fan
Was the ring of the rainbow!
She is crestfallen and crumbled;
She is ashamed and humbled.
It is too late…
Too late…
Love, O red torch of delight!
Send your last brilliant light;
Perhaps my gray despair, distraught
Reflects my gloomy thoughts.
Love…
O red torch of delight…
O love…
O love…
About Simin Behbahani
Simin Behbahani (1927–2014) was one of Iran’s most influential modern poets, celebrated for bringing new life to the traditional Persian ghazal. Her poetry combined the musicality and imagery of classical Persian verse with deeply personal themes of love, longing, loneliness and the complexities of everyday life. She became known for reshaping the ghazal’s traditional forms and rhythms, giving them a distinctly contemporary voice.
Love and emotional relationships were recurring themes in her poetry, often expressed from a distinctly female perspective. Her poems are marked by vivid imagery, emotional honesty and a remarkable musicality of language. “Love Arrived and How Red” reflects this intimate side of Behbahani’s work, where love, age, desire and the feeling of time passing meet in a bittersweet meditation on the possibility of love arriving too late.
 was one of Iran’s most influential modern poets, celebrated for bringing new life to the traditional Persian ghazal.){kind=link}
[…] poets including Forough Farrokhzad, Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamlou, Fereydoon Moshiri, Sohrab Sepehri, Simin Behbahani, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, Nosrat Rahmani, Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani, Vida Farhoudi, Ghazal […]