The Dance (Siamanto)

The Dance

A poem by Siamanto. Translated by Peter Balakian and Nevart Yaghlian.

In a field of cinders where Armenian life was still dying,

a German woman,

trying not to cry

told me the horror she witnessed:

"This thing I'm telling you about,

I saw with my own eyes,

Behind my window of hell

I clenched my teeth

and watched the town of Bardez turn

into a heap of ashes.The corpses were piled high as trees,

and from the springs, from the streams and the road,

the blood was a stubborn murmur,and still calls revenge in my ear.

Don't be afraid; I must tell you what I saw,

so people will understand

the crimes men do to men.

For two days, by the road to the graveyard …

Let the hearts of the world understand,

It was Sunday morning,

the first useless Sunday dawning on the corpses.

From dawn to dusk

I had been in my room

with a stabbed woman—

my tears wetting her death —

when I heard from afar a dark crowd

standing in a vineyard

lashing twenty brides

and singing filthy songs.

Leaving the half-dead girl on the straw mattress,

I went to the balcony of my window

and the crowd seemed to thicken like a clump of trees

An animal of a man shouted, "You must dance,

dance when our drum beats."

With fury whips cracked

on the flesh of these women.

Hand in hand the brides began their circle dance.

Now, I envied my wounded neighbour

because with a calm snore she cursed

the universe and gave up her soul to the stars …

​:"Dance," they raved,

"dance till you die, infidel beauties

With your flapping tits, dance!

Smile for us. You're abandoned now,

you're naked slaves,so dance like a bunch of fuckin' sluts.

We're hot for your dead bodies.

"Twenty graceful brides collapsed.

"Get up," the crowed screamed,

brandishing their swords.

​:Then someone brought a jug of kerosene.

Human justice, I spit in your face.

The brides were anointed.

"Dance," they thundered —

"here's a fragrance you can't get in Arabia."

With a torch, they set the naked brides on fire.

And the charred bodies rolled

and tumbled to their deaths …

I slammed my shutters,

sat down next to my dead girl

and asked:

"How can I dig out my eyes?"