After writing my last blog about Delara in which I said I might follow up on it, I grappled very hard with whether I should do so, and decided that I would indeed write a piece but not as a blog,, but only send it to those close to me because I felt that under the circumstances, with which many of you are familiar, I would no longer be heard. .
Today I have changed my mind and I shall be completing it and posting it as a blog within the week to come.
The themes of that piece, which are all one theme reallym are why Delara is so important because she sings in her poems, her images and in the pale blue silk headscarf that seeks the sea and sky, the dark and the Light that is the soul of Iran. I wanted to say how important it is to not forget for one moment that Delara is neither guillty nor innocent, but compllicitous. And that Delara sits rudderless amidst the rubble, that you, that our generation, her elders,left her of her nation. a nation of birds where crows hang both vultures and doves alike from cranes. And I wanted to say that I beg and plead with you that you fight for this young wman’s life as though you were fighting for the life of your own children and the very soul of your nation–you, we, neither innocent nor guilty but all, all complicitous.
And it is a complex piece of writing but I wanted to tell you that I will post it within one week’s time. in as concrete and clear terms as possible.
It is now more than ever crucial to fight for Delara in her death. Delara our daughter who teaches us in the poem below not what freedom is, because no one can know what freedom is, but what freedom is not. Within the context of this website, of expatria.com, I believe she tells us that freedom is not the freedom to buy and sell freedom for free.
Perhaps now some of you will listen to me. I don’t know.
And I wanted to talk about how it was that I came here in search of a song. And I lost that song and that Delara gave that song back to me.. .and why.
There is a way to fight for Delara’s life even though Delara is dead. Because Delara even and perhaps most especially in her death, in her words, her images, her eyes, her pale blue silk headscarf seeking sea and sky, and most especially in her very complicity, rudderless amidst the rubble of your, of my, of her, of our, of everyone’s nation, that we left her, embodies now more than ever the soul, the past, the present and the future of Iran. A country whose legacy and future are so important for the entire world.
Rudderless, complicitous amidst the rubble of history, yet ready to fly, to find and lead the way.
تا زمانیکه آزادیم
آزادی را آرمانی دست نیافتنی می پنداریم
و برای رسیدن به چیزی که قربانی زیر پای ماست؛
دستها یمان را دراز می کنیم
آزادی ! همیشه در بند نبودن معنا نمی دهد
آی آدم ها ! بیایید بند های اندیشمان را بدریم ها
ودر بند ازادی نباشیم
زیرا که خود در “بند“ ماست
TRANSLATION OF DELARA’S POEM
While Free
we suppose freedom is an ideal, Unattainable.
and we reach out
for what is already sacrificed under our own feet!
Freedom!?….Never being entrapped is meaningless!
Oh People! Let us rip the chains of our thoughts
and not be captivated by freedom
for …that itself is our “captive
