Baktash Abtin
& Bänoo Zan (translator, from the Persian)
homeland
بکتاش آبتین
وطن
!وطن
!وطن مهربان من
حالا روی کدام انگشت خود
حساب می کنی؟
با کدام دست
حرف هایم را می شنوی؟
با کدام گوش؟
چه شد؟
لاله های گوش تو
چه شد؟
و چه شد که جوانان تو
از پیاده رو ها به جوها افتادند؟
و افتادند که
ا فتادگی آموز اگر طالب فیضی
و فیض می برند لاله های تو هر روز
دراتومبیل های رنگارنگ خون بالا می آورند
از خون جوانان وطن
لاله دمیده
و سرودهای تو همگی
در روزهای مشخص ناله می کنند
کودکانی که در کفش هایشان
از کوچه ای به کوچه ی دیگر گم می شوند
و گم می شود آرزوی دوچرخه ای
در خیابان ولی عصر
!که نه
قدم زدن در شلوار جینی
که شصت در صد تخفیف در پاچه دارد
!وطنم
تابوت جوانان تو
این گونه بر دوش پیاده روها
غرق می شود
homeland
My homeland!
My merciful homeland!
Now, which one of your fingers
do you count on?
with which hand?
Do you hear my words?
With which ear?
What happened?
What happened to your
tulip-like ears?
And what happened that your youth
fell from pavements into gutters?
And fall they did such that
Learn humility if you seek blessings*
And your tulips are blessed every day
They vomit blood in all the colourful cars
Tulips have bloomed from
the blood of the youths of our land**
And your anthems all
mourn on special days
kids who are lost in their shoes
from one alley to the next
and the dream of a bicycle is lost
in Vali Asr Street***
so that, no!
Walking in jeans that have
sixty percent discount up their legs
My homeland!
The coffins of your youths
thus drown
on the shoulders of pavements
*Line attributed to Pourya-ye Vali (d. 1322 CE) wrestling champion, Sufi teacher, and poet.
**Line from a poem by Aref Qazvini
***Street in Tehran named after the twelfth occulted Shiite Imam, Mahdi. “Vali Asr” literally translates to “Guardian of the Times” and is an epithet for Mahdi.
Baktash Abtin (aka Mehdi Kazemi) (16 December 1974 – 8 January 2022) was an Iranian poet, writer, and film maker who was imprisoned by the Islamic Republic for “propaganda against the state” and “acting against national security”. He was the writer of three poetry collections and director of seven movies. Abtin was admitted to Evin Prison in September 2022. He died as a result of deliberate postponement of treatment for COVID19 by prison authorities who granted him medical furlough almost a year after the initial symptoms appeared.
Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, and curator, with numerous published pieces and books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry open mic series (inception 2012). It bridges the gap between poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions. Bänoo, with Cy Strom, is the co-editor of the anthology Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution. She was given Life Membership in the League of Canadian Poets in 2024 and is the recipient of the 2025 Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award.