My Land (Iran)

My land
is that lady who searched
from the moment the sun woke up
until the moon took over
for twenty years or more
every prison in my nation
to find
her executed husband.
My land
is that child
who was given birth to
in a prison cell, last year.
Or maybe the mother
who shouted out the pain
while bringing the embryo to life
by cursing the baby’s father
-the man who raped her-.
My land
is the man on tv
from exile
who encourages me
to boycott the elections
in the hope for Americans to help
by bombing my land.
Or the old man
who is watching tv
and hoping to find
some radiation of light
in the face of the speaker.
My land
is the student
who cares
for his home and landmates
who participated
peacefully
in a wide demonstration last month
and got arrested
put in a cage
but no-one cares to know
what happenned since then...
My land
is the girl from the countryside
who came to study in Tehran
and turned into a faded rose
sleeping every night
next to a new man
who will pay for her services.
My land
is the writer who was imprisoned
many times
either when the lions ruled
or when the vultures came.
Oh my land,
You are so lonely my land.
You are alone my land.

~ 23 December 2007

Arrogant Witness

Here comes my first Dutch poem (translated in English in the brackets):

Ik ben een getuige (I am a witness)
hier (here)
in ‘de Tijd’ (in "the time")
van ongelijke behandelingen. (of unfair treatment)

Het spijt me (I'm sorry)
dat ze mij (that they)
eerst (first)
geholpen hebben (helped me)
-al was ik veel later (though I arrived much later)
gekomen-
omdat ik (because I)
een jonge, aantrekkelijke (have a young, attractive)
uitstraling heb (charisma)
en u (and you)
niet. (don't)

~restaurant “De Tijd” in Utrecht op 19-12-2007 [restaurant "De Tijd" (trans.:"the time") in Utrecht on 19-12-2007]

Ps. I love travelling. But I feel so tired, now that I'm back home...
Pps. Sometimes a translation is just not as strong as the original thing. I love this one more in Dutch
Ppps. Who would have thought that I would ever dare to write a poem in Dutch?!!

Just for you...

Katie Melua - I Cried for you

Same wavelength

Scared,
Many are scared,
Birds; of the athletic stone and
Trees; of the utter of ax,
Dragonflies; of the spider’s sign and
I; of the odds of every lie that a person…

Here, some without reason
without reason insult me.
Those, more fearful than night sleep
consider
night, be indefinite… night.

As a matter of fact
Everyone is scared
Especially me
that am; of peeling a ripened orange!
A knife in my nation
is a symbol of beheading wind and pigeon and sea.

Here
There is no speak of night’s temperance and
no vain discussion of a death
that stalks our words.

I’m simply amazed of all these rocks and axes
of all these spiders and suffering!

Tell me
all these
What do they do here
What do they want here
Looking forward for which broken light
do they offend the twilight of the wise?

~ Seyed Ali Salehi (a short bio by Caroun.com)

translated by: Farinaz Aryanfar

Hello?

Hello?
look!
Here!
I'm right,
right here!
You see?
You notice
But I sense some fear
You come so near
but then you leave me
alone
at the pier
with some words
making clear:
when I waved
and you came late
it wasn't that you didn't hear
it was
because
between friendship and more
there is a barrier
and
you are making a carrier!
What non-sense!
Why can't people be honest
and sincere?
just say that you aren't
attrackted, my dear!
and I'm a big girl
so I promise
not to drop a tear.

Rejected!

I don't know how to interpret
what you called: "mentality"

When little crushes of mine
are crushed easily

it's done with the excitement
of short glimpses, sadly

and I'm really confused
of the signals you gave me

why following me then? why shouting that you "like"?
if it was all meant as, being "just friendly"

So many questions, but I'm letting you go
it's a result of you, being younger maybe?!

What do you say?

Taking Chances - Celine Dion

We are safe!

According to one of my best sources, there was this secret meeting on 29th of November this year about what Mr. Bush is going to do about Iran (Read: "Attack or not?"). You can understand that it was very important to me to know what was concluded from the brainstorms behind those closed doors, Bush merely has another year to go, and I wanted to know, whether he is going to bugger up my home-country as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, or not.
My country is already degenerated by its own rulers, but making any improvements, is up to my country-mates and me, not on some nosy governments.

Logically, only his very small circle of trust was invited to the meeting (I never got any names on that). So I couldn’t get any inside information.
Still, I don’t just rely on my sources you know; they could easily give you the wrong information and mislead your analysis. That’s why I also read the news.

On that date, the president of the United States gave a speech confirming my source (in an indirect way).
Of course I did not know what went on in the closed meeting but I followed the news closely. [This is how politics goes. You have to puzzle all the information you get from different sources (people, news, etc.)].
It was last Monday (Nov 3, 2007), when I was watching rtl.nieuws (one of Netherlands’ news broadcastings) and I saw Stephen J. Hadley telling reporters that "Iran stopped working on a suspected nuclear weapons program more than four years ago".

It's not important how legitimate this report is (remember that back then in 2005, it was this same intelligence service who informed the public that Iran DID NOT stop his activities and was soon going to have a nuclear weapon), what is important is that they (U.S' government) came to some terms with the crazy authorities of my country, or they (the CIA) came to some terms with the anti-war democrats in the United States.

I stood up jumping and screaming from joy! There won’t be a war after all. We are safe! I had tears running through my face.
We have control now. We have time. We got a second chance. We get to decide for our country. We; the Iranian people, the Iranian opposition...