Poems and Translations
Poetry of Sholeh Wolpé <Back To Poems Home Page
Neda Soy
Deja esa bala del Basiji en mi corazón,
deslízate rezando en mi sangre,
y toca la paz, padre
- muerta no estoy.Más luz que materia,
desbordo a través de ti,
respiro penetrando tus ojos,
surgo sobre tus zapatos, sobre los techos,
contigo manifesto por las avenidas
en la metropolis y los pueblitos de tu país
grito desde tus entrañas, contigo estoy.
Soy Relámpago-Neda destellando de tu lengua.
--Sholeh Wolpé (Translation by JF Herrera and Hélène Cardona)
On June 20th, 2009, Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26 year old Iranian woman and a student of philosophy who was attending a demonstration in Tehran protesting the vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was aimed at and shot in the heart by a Basiji hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. In the jittery cell phone video of a bystander who captured her murder, we hear her father wailing her name, begging her to stay, not to leave, as blood gushes from her chest and streams out of her mouth. The name Neda in Persian means “The call.”
