The Calendar Cannot Rest
S. Rouzbeh
۱۹ مرداد ۱۴۰۵

Days and months of mourning become a pledge to remember the dead and keep working towards freedom and justice.

The Calendar Cannot Rest
S. Rouzbeh

Three days passed,
seven days,
forty days…

Six months went by,
seven months,
and now
for two hundred and forty days
the calendar
has worn black
around your names.

But we
have still found no peace.

How could we rest
when your laughter
is missing from the alleys
and the night
still walks the streets
in those same boots?

We neither forgive
nor forget;
not out of hatred,
but for justice.

For forgetting
is a curtain
drawn over the hand of crime,
and we
will not let
your blood
stay hidden in the dark.

They killed you
because you were young,
because you were true,
and wanted justice
for everyone.

Because you loved the people,
because at night
grief at oppression
would not let you sleep.

Because you were kind,
and kindness
in an age of stone
was a grave crime.

Because you wanted this soil
for growing,
not for graves.

Because you loved Iran’s future
before it
had arrived.

Because you had purpose,
were free in spirit,
and loved light
more than darkness,
day
more than night,
and life
more than
death.

And for precisely
this offence
they took your lives.

If you were angels,
it was not
because you had wings;
it was because
amid so much darkness
you remained human.

Your blood
did not stay on the paving stones;
it became a red line
beneath the word freedom,
so in the onslaught of night
we would not lose our way.

You bright laughter,
you breakers of the night,
you whose names live on,
you children of Iran,

Know
that you live in our hearts;
in our memory,
in our voices,
in every step
we take towards freedom.

We neither forgive
nor forget;
until our final breath,
until the roots of oppression
are torn from this land’s soil,
pulled out,
and darkness
has nowhere left
to hide.

With your
own blood
you bore witness
not to death,
but to Iran’s life:

Iran is alive,
Iran will endure,
and out of this night
one day
will rise
into the light.

Source: https://srouzbeh.com/en/posts/archive-512daa6c-e45c-e86e-6109-0c275130fb51
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