I Like His Return/Simin Behbahani

Feminist School :The latest poem by Simin Behbahani in memory of Ayatollah Montazeri :

" I Like His Return"

The man whose chastity

Was purer than the heavens,

In whose tears love shined

As a rainbow in the dew.

Inspired by liberation,

To the infinity of his soul.

The verses of love,

The verdicts of justice

Extended beyond borders.

Under the rays of his wisdom,

Meaning evolved into perfection

As buds evolve to full blossoms.

He who owned half of

The Half of the World.(1)

I like his departure,

I honor his repentance.

Although he was the founder,

Of what was Founded,(2)

But he stayed aside,

The doors were closed.

Heartbroken

With injustice,

He encouraged the dismayed,

He endowed poverty.

In a humble den,

He lived like a king.

Such is the way of the humanist.

Such was this pride of humanity’s way of life

Not abandoning the bench for the throne

Turning away from the world,

Is not any nobody.

The one who achieves this

Is worthy to be called a hero.

Of legendary strength,

Of prodigious love and compassion,

He who never died,

He who never dies,

The man who was Life.

(Simin Behbahani)

December 21,2009

Translated by Mina Siegel

Persian version:http://www.iranfemschool.com/spip.php?article3956

1 “Half of the world†is an epithet for Isfahan, the ayatollah’s home province.

2 The “Founded†was the poet’s way of referring to the Islamic Republic.