Migrant Cloud – اوپرای ابر عجول
Migrant Cloud- Tracks 2 & 6
5:10 | Low-register baritone | Full orchestration with continuous shimmer | D♯/E♭ major
April 2021. My dear friend and classmate at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Dr. Ali Jalalvandi, shared an image of clouds passing over a thirsty plain. I saw a story: clouds that release their rain at distant mountains while parched wildflowers watch from below.
Migrant Cloud is a petition, a persistent prayer addressed to a passing cloud. The speaker, earth-bound, watching from below, asks the cloud to pause its journey and deliver its rain to the thirsty plains as tribute to the beauty of the wild rose.
The cloud is addressed as both zā’ir (pilgrim) and zāhid (ascetic)—spiritual figures hurrying toward a distant mountain Kaaba. The mountain receives the rain as gerye-ye sakht (fearsome weeping) on its dāman (skirt), an image of startling intimacy. Then the transformation: the raindrop becomes būse-ye garm (warm kiss). Weeping becomes tenderness. Water on rock becomes caress.
The refrain, sahm-e zibāyi-ye nastaranast (this is owed to the wild rose’s beauty), establishes rain as rightful due. The poem claims justice, not mercy.
Three imperatives rearrange themselves in the final section: biyā (come), bemān (stay), bebār (pour your rain)—the language of prayer, where repetition means intensification. In the final seconds, the voice lifts to the highest register for the first and last time, as if reaching to touch the passing cloud. The composition ends in suspension. The petition hangs in air, unresolved, like rain that has not yet fallen. Plateau architecture: rapid build to sustained intensity, held for five minutes—no waves, no collapse, no triumphant resolution.
O the hasty cloud,
swift wanderer of skies
Your rain is left behind
in a thirsty dream
of this boundless plain.
Pause a moment
Linger for a glance.
For this heavy weeping
- Upon the mountain's skirt
- Is owed to the wild rose,
tribute to its beauty
It is owed to the wild rose,
tribute to its beauty
O ascetic of this strange mountain
Pilgrim to that distant shrine
Your name lingers on
the lips Of this withered bush.
The prostration upon unyielding stone,
The droplet on rock's hem,
This warm kiss
- Is owed to the wild rose,
tribute to its beauty
You come and stay in this plain,
You stay and pour upon these lands.
(Layered operatic repeating)
You pour upon this plain,
you stay here.
You remain in this plain and pour.
You stay, and you pour upon this plain.
You stay and you pour here...
Here is an early attempt at a rock version of this poem:
گاهی، نگاهی 