Known as the "lioness of Iran," Simin Behbahani, Iran national poet was detained last month as she prepared to fly to Paris for a reading.
This is a vocal translation of her poem Stop Throwing My Country to the Wind. I have taken her words and re-imagined them. The audio contains sound clips from protest videos posted at GreenUnity4Iran on Youtube.
Here is the Link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyEjsLeqSag&feature=related
Here is a link to the NPR article- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124768269
I have included her original poem in the post below.
If you want to write a poem about the sunrise you have to get up fucking early -Me, I said that.
I have a twilight nightlife rambling before dawn
I am the four on the clock face being pointed to and accused but now I am the four and an inch more
the invisible mechanism of streetlights continue in incremental changes, one eye ticks to green to yellow then red, the other blinks green now as if competing, they face north-south, against east-west from red to back again
the intersection vacant of cars the concrete shore line and asphalt sea meet and warm the black hand of night is slowly robbed of stars the heraldic rays of coming day green-red, yellow-red, red-green
green, an rusty watermelon-green 89’ Le Baron a black man with illumines eyes, his skin, dusty charcoal his lighter skinned son in the blue light of twilight made steel gray perched on stacks like an ashy pigeon sits on stacks of white newspaper stack in the back seat
brake lights flare blur and smear their red stain written across the empty air neon cherry blur a brake lights smudge
the sound of a single issue of the Sac Bee smacks its palm on the ground drags itself across the anonymous face of some suburban driveway the car’s engine grumble away seeking a pocket in the still air
all your choices have brought you to 2nd street the silence says, the clock hand points all your years have brought you to thirty all your words have brought to you these words
the silence says, the clock hand points the streetlight mechanism
Posts
