Thanks a lot, Sue for bringing up Langston Hughes. I had always wanted you to talk about him and explain some of his poems to us. One of the greatest contemporary Iranian poets called Ahmad Shamloo translated some selected poems of his into Persian more than a decade ago. That is the good news. The bad news is that Ahmad Shamloo is one of the worst contemporary translators.
I love this one and I think it is very easy to understand even for beginners in English:
“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field,
Frozen with snow”
They say that Langston Hughes was a waiter in a restaurant when one of America's great poets went there. He then placed one of his poems on a plate and put it on the poet's table. Then once the great poet saw Langston's poem, he got so sxcited and liked it so much that he rose from his chair and read it for the people in the restaurant aloud and announced that he thought he was a great poet.
Have you heard this, Sue?
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