Poetry by Hila Sadiqi; English Adaption

Do you still Love Iran?
A Monody by Hila Sadighi
English Adaption by
Darioush Bayandor


It is raining, autumn is back,
The sky pours down its sorrow,
Clouds bend down, hovering over the roofs,
As if crushed by the summer heat,

September blends with colors of the school.
The odor of chalk and the blackboard,
The shrill sound of the school-bell,
That summons the first class.

Avenging forbidden merriments,
The banal frolics and juvenile joys,
Their anger pierces the air of the classroom,
Their reproach hurled for uncommitted sins.

It’s the melancholic return of the school year,
With its evocative moments and souvenirs,
Your place is empty in the classroom,
And me sitting on a bench with withered flowers.

Like the air of autumn gloomy I feel,
A captive of my angers.
What of the cherished dreams? Chimerical alas they were,
The fleeting moments of ecstasy, at the vertex of hope,
And much ado for what was not to come!

We were birds that could not fly,
Caught in the claws of falcons,
The beasts with malicious talons,
Who finished you, me looking in daze.

You drank the chalice of the hemlock and flew away,
And my heart fell apart and withered.

But tell-me, are you happy at last where you are?
Did you find freedom on the other side of the life?
What of our juvenile passions?
And the love of the land we grew up in?
Do you still love Iran?

Do you still encounter villains?
Thugs, scoundrels and bullies?
Does someone try to rob you of your ken?
Or injure your pride?

Are there traces of unnamed graves?
Or hear you sobs of the mourning mothers?

Sing with me, friend, companion, my soul-mate,
Sing my song with passion and pain.
It’s again the autumn and schools reopen,
And the sky pours down its sorrow,
And there I am with your empty place on the bench,
Feeling lonely, next to withered flowers.