Many well-known people have been packed away in cemeteries,
there is no longer any evidence that they ever existed.
That old corpse they shovelled under the dirt,
his dust’s so devoured not a bone of him’s left.
Naushervan’s honourable name survives because he was
open-handed,
though a lot has happened since Naushervan died.
—Better be open-handed, What’s-your-name, (write it off:
Depreciation)
before the gossip goes: ‘What’s-his-name’s dead.’
from Bunting’s PersiaFind more by Basil Bunting at the library
Copyright © 2012 Basil Bunting
Used with the permission of Flood Editions.