The Sorrows and Torments
Dr. Alireza Bemanian
•© www.bemanian.com
آتشِ مشحون ز گلگون بادهِ ساقی سخا سَکرانه نیست
Chapter II: Knacks and Aptitudes — epigraph
The sorrows and torments, laments and burdens,
to mourn and regret, and the shadows,
black circles, the seeking specks, dabs and blobs.
While, the themes surmount, melodies conjure,
refrains tally, and arguments refer.
Appeals would goad, incitements exhort,
urgings spur; auras curtail.
Shall the birds glide,
the tracks of the rays, waves and sparks,
beams and glimmers,
just turn the cheek, inhale the breeze.
Whereas, the brightness of the sun,
the sharpness of the glaze, blares the vaults,
the dome of the dreams and the cupola of reveries,
captures of the convictions, and the verdicts and beliefs.
Or, summations, rundowns, abridgements and remits,
ascertain and fulfilled, rewarded and survived,
symphony of stars, sonata of icons, and the opus of ideals,
the salsa and rhumba, to capture and contain, embody and emmesh.
The ducks and geese fly squads,
Storms and squalls, the gales and dust,
the turning head, endures the curse, the bane and pain,
to turn the share, with joyous gain.
Observe, witness, detect and purge,
respect, reflect, loose gilding chain,
the birds, fowls, and convictions,
the faiths and persuasions.
No recess or respite, nook and niche,
fly and soar, glide and coast, and dash and pour.
Alireza Bemanian • January 3, 2026 • © www.bemanian.com
Themes & Interpretations
Ekphrastic Sorrow
Grief as Visual Mark-Making
The poem’s first and most original innovation: sorrow is rendered not in the vocabulary of feeling but of painting. “Black circles, seeking specks, dabs and blobs” are the marks of a painter’s brush on canvas — grief given shape, dimension, and spatial presence. What can be seen as form can be examined and, ultimately, left behind. The sorrows are not abstract; they are visible, workable.
The “While” of Simultaneity
Sorrow and Music Coexist
The single word “While” is the poem’s most profound philosophical move. Music does not wait for sorrow to end — it rises from within the grief, simultaneously, at the same moment. This rejects consolation poetry’s sequenced logic (first suffer, then heal) in favor of a more demanding and more generous vision: the song is already present within the sorrow, available at every moment to the attention that turns toward it.
The Cathedral Within
Dome, Cupola, and Blaring Light
Consciousness is rendered as a layered sacred space: “the dome of the dreams and the cupola of reveries” — a cathedral of the interior with a ceiling that can be blared through. The sun’s light does not gently enter but announces itself like a fanfare, capturing the convictions held within. Transformation is architectural: the existing structure is reorganized by a new quality of light, not replaced.
The Aerodynamic Ethics
V-Formation and Shared Burden
The poem’s social philosophy is encoded in ornithology. Birds in V-formation rotate the lead because the front presents the greatest aerodynamic resistance. The “turning head” endures the headwind so the formation can fly efficiently — then passes the share. The “joyous gain” is not personal triumph but collective efficiency: a community’s flight sustained by the deliberate, rotating distribution of its most difficult position.
Six Modes of Flight
The Taxonomy of Perpetual Motion
The final stanza refuses a single image of freedom, offering instead a complete vocabulary: fly (effortful), soar (thermal-riding), glide (graceful), coast (momentum-sustained), dash (brief intensity), pour (fluid continuity). The soul’s proper state is not any one of these but the full range — perpetual, multi-form motion with “no recess or respite.” The absence of rest is not deprivation; it is the announcement of a life lived in all six modes at once.