{"id":11791,"date":"2010-12-14T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11791"},"modified":"2010-12-14T06:00:30","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T13:00:30","slug":"persian-poetry-tuesday-partow-nurialas-i-am-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11791","title":{"rendered":"Persian Poetry Tuesday: Partow Nuriala's "I Am Human""},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Partow Nuriala was forced by the government to stop teaching philosophy at Tehran University, where she also worked as a social worker. She subsequently founded Damavand Publications, one of the first independent woman-run presses in Iran. Three years later, the government shut the press down, an ironic development since it was during the revolution in Iran that the ban on her first book of poetry, A Share of the Years, <\/em>which had been imposed by the Pahlavi regime in 1972 was lifted. In 1986, Partow came to the United States with her two young children. Since 1988, she has worked in the Los Angeles County Superior Court as a deputy jury commissioner, though she still has an active literary career. Her publications include four books of poems, literary and movie reviews, a collection of short stories and a play. “I Am Human” was published in the anthology Strange Times, My Dear<\/em><\/a> and was translated by Zara Hushmand. ((Apologies to the poet and the translator for the inaccurate line breaks. I don’t know how to make WordPress show them as they are supposed to appear.))<\/p>\n

\n

I Am Human<\/h3>\n

Bow your form
\nin sight of the earth.
\nHide your face
\nfrom the light
\nof the sun and moon,
\nfor you are a woman.<\/p>\n

Bury your body’s blossoming
\nin the pit of time.
\nConsign the renegade strands of your hair
\nto the ashes in the wood stove,
\nand the fiery power of your hands
\nto scrubbing and sweeping the home
\nfor you are a woman.<\/p>\n

Kill your word’s wit:
\nruin it
\nwith silence.
\nFeel shame for your desires
\nand grant your enchanted soul
\nto the patience of the wind
\nfor you are a woman.<\/p>\n

Deny yourself,
\nthat your lord
\nmay ride in you
\nat his pleasure,
\nfor you are a woman.<\/p>\n

I cry
\nI cry
\nin a land where ignorant kindness
\ncuts deeper
\nthan the cruelty of knowledge.
\nI weep for my birth
\nas a woman.<\/p>\n

I fight
\nI fight
\nin a land where
\nthe zeal of manliness
\nbellows in the field
\nbetween home and grave.
\nI fight my birth
\nas a woman.<\/p>\n

I keep my eyes wide open
\nso as not to sink
\nunder the weight
\nof this dream that others
\nhave dreamed for me,
\nand I rip apart
\nthis shirt of fear
\nthey have sewn to cover
\nmy naked thought,
\nfor I am a woman.<\/p>\n

I make love to the god of war
\nto bury
\nthe ancient sword of his anger.
\nI make war on the dark god
\nthat the light of my name
\nmay shine,
\nfor I am a woman.<\/p>\n

With love in one hand,
\nlabor in the other,
\nI fashion the world
\non the ground of my glorious brilliance,
\nand into a bed
\nof clouds I tuck
\nthe scent of my smile,
\nthat the sweet smelling rain
\nmay bring to blossom
\nall the loves of the world,
\nfor I am a woman.<\/p>\n

My children I bring
\nto the feast of light,
\nmy men
\nto the feast of awareness,
\nfor I am a woman.<\/p>\n

I am the earth’s steady purity,
\nthe enduring glory of time,
\nfor I am human.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cross posted on The Poetry in the Politics and The Politics in The Poetry<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Partow Nuriala was forced by the government to stop teaching philosophy at Tehran University, where she also worked as a social worker. She subsequently founded Damavand Publications, one of the first independent woman-run … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,52],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-11791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iran","category-literature","tag-partow-nuriala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}