کاش بودم لاله
Kash Bodam Lala
“If Only I Were a Tulip”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
Would I were a tulip so they might seek me in the desert Would the wound of my heart were visible on my face
Would I were like a fallen book in a silent corner So that only the wise would face me
Would I were like a heading on the page of the age So the narrow eye of the world's people would not see me
Would I were like a candle so that for every glance of others They would burn me from head to toe in the gathering
Transliteration
Kasho bodam lala ta joyand dar sahra mara Kasho daghe dil howaida bod az sima mara
Kash bodam chon ketab oftada dar konje khamosh Ta nagardad roh baro joz mardome dana mara
Kasho bodam hamcho onwane neshane rozogar Ta nabinad chashme tange mardome dunya mara
Kasho bodam hamcho shama ta bahre negahe degaran Dar miyane jama sozanand sar ta pa mara
Kasho bodam hamcho shabnam ta myane bostan Boad har shab ta sahar dar damane gul ja mara
Kasho qodse az hawa por meshodam hamcho habab Ta bahar ja jay medadand dar bala mara
متن اصلی
کاش بودم لاله تا جويند در صحرا مرا کاش داغ دل هويدا بود از سيما مرا
کاش بودم چون کتاب افتاده در کنجی خموش تا نگردد رو برو جز مردم دانا مرا
کاش بودم همچو عنوانی نشان روزگار تا نبيند چشم تنگ مردم دنيا مرا
کاش بودم همچو شمع تا بهر نگاه ديگران در ميان جمع سوزانند سر تا پا مرا
کاش بودم همچو شبنم تا ميان بوستان بود هر شب تا سحر در دامن گل جا مرا
کاش قدسی از هوا پر ميشدم همچو حباب تا بهر جا جای ميدادند در بالا مرا
Would I were a tulip sought in the desert — would my heart's wound were visible; would I were a fallen book in a silent corner; would I were a heading on the page of the age; would I were a candle burned from head to toe by others' glances.
About This Recording
Kash Bodam Lala — Would I Were a Tulip — is a poem of multiple wished-for identities, each expressed through the optative 'kash bodam' (would I were). The tulip first: in Persian lyric the tulip is the grief-marked flower, its red petals the color of blood, growing in deserts rather than cultivated gardens. To be a tulip is to be sought in the wild, found in difficult terrain, to have the wound of love visible in one's own appearance.
'Would I were like a fallen book in a silent corner / So that only the wise would face me' — the book in the silent corner is inaccessible to casual readers, available only to those who would make the effort of searching it out. The speaker wants an audience that has earned them. The heading on the page of the age (sar-khat-e safhe-ye dawran) extends the book metaphor: a heading is what frames and titles the content of an era; the speaker would be definitional rather than marginal.
The final wished-for state — being a candle burned by others' glances — completes the inventory with the most characteristic image: the candle that burns for the benefit of the gathering (mahfil) but is consumed in the process. 'From head to toe' (sar ta pa) means the consumption is total, nothing exempted. What links all four states — tulip, book, heading, candle — is the quality of being recognized and consumed, wanted and destroyed, in exactly the right proportions.
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