Imshab Ba Bame Asoman

The Pleiades — called Soraya or Thurayya in Arabic and Persian tradition — is one of the most recognized star clusters across the ancient world. Its rising marked the farming seasons and was an omen for sailors; its name entered Persian as a feminine name of beauty. To address the Pleiades as 'O my shining star' is to speak to something both cosmic and intimate.

'Winking, trailing your skirt / With the coquetry of young women' — the poem personifies the Pleiades as a young woman moving across the night sky with the careless allure of something beautiful and uncatchable. 'O Pleiades — become mine too' is the lover's plea addressed not to a person but to a constellation, which makes it both absurd and tender.

'The moon's reflection on you is silver-hued / The moon has been humbled by your beauty' — the Pleiades outshine even the moon in this poem's hierarchy. 'O playful daughter of midnight' gives the cluster a parentage: daughter of the night itself. Ahmad Zahir's catalog includes songs like this alongside his darkest laments — a range that shows his ear for different registers of lyric feeling.