by Majid Naficy01-Nov-2009
I see you sitting there
in your metal box Near the Blue Bus, And no finger taps On your glass pane Save for drops of rain. I stop and in dim light Gaze at your red letters Which, like the bullets of guards Shot at the silent marchers On the green streets of Tehran, Hit my temples and chest Hot, all hot. I go, but you stay Oh, street witness! At all crossroads of the world Displaying yourself Behind your glass pane, And no tyrant dare erase Your bold letters From your paper chest. October 14, 2009 http://www.iranian.com/main/2009/nov/journalist-prison
The Marchers Turn Green by Majid Naficy In memory of Neda and her friends (1) Like the sprouts of wheat Which must grow green, The marchers turn green. (2) They have green ballots in their hands And red passion in their veins, Oblivious to death Who is wearing a dirty turban And a long dark robe. “This land belongs to us Not to the men in turbans Or any supreme leader, And the proof is in our votes.” The marchers turn green With a telling silence in their lips And an echo of freedom in their ears. They are fearless of death Who is wearing a paper helmet And a wooden dagger. “This land belongs to us Not to the men with daggers, And the wound of a sword Cannot sever our united hands From the skirt of our motherland.” The marchers turn green With the branches of cypress in their hands And a glimmer of hope in their eyes. The young Rakhsh horses neigh (3) And immortal Symorgh flies (4) From mount Alborz toward them. “This land belongs to us And we’ll take it back Not with bullets or grenades But by counting our ballots.” June, 25, 2009
1. Neda Agha-Soltan was a student of philosophy killed by the government forces on a mass demonstration against the rigged presidential election in Tehran on June 20, 2009. Her first name means “call” or “echo” referred to in this poem as “an echo of freedom” in the second stanza. 2. Green is the color of the June uprising against the rigged election and represents the non-violent nature of this movement. 3. Rakhsh is the horse of the mythological Iranian, hero, Rostam. 4. Symorgh is the name of a mythological bird helping Rostam in some of his battles. She raises Rostam’s father in Mt. Alborz.
“And yet it does turn!” Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)