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  • Today I dreamed all day…
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Today I dreamed all day…

Rauf Parfi

Today I dreamed all day. I dreamed
I drove round Bukhara. I dreamed
dizzy minarets, I dreamed
rosegardens skimmed my shoes.
I dreamed I drove round Bukhara.
I dreamed the sun came with me
and thawed tangles, ran snarls:
a bluesailed stone outshining Always.
I dreamed dizzy minarets,
jealous-faced. I dreamed
History, in front of me, flash!
run in a skyblue flame. I dreamed
rosegardens skimmed my shoes. I dreamed
a skyblue flame running on and on…
Bukhara, and in it a skyblue rose,
took me forever…forever. I dreamed
it took out my senses:
I dreamed I saw my heart…
Today I dreamed all day. I dreamed
I drove round Bukhara.


Rauf Parfi

from The Song Atlas: A Book of World Poetry, edited by John Gallas (Manchester: Carcanet, 2003)

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

dreams sensations Uzbekistan

About this poem

This poem, representing Uzbekistan, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Rauf Parfi

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