You Were Not Unknown

‘You Were Not Unknown’

You were not unknown;

we came to know you late.

You

were the estranged sister of our home,

sister to the women of this land,

sister to the men

who still

carry grief in silence.

You were not unknown;

you gave your life,

a name that never reached the page,

but on the heart of a nation

was engraved.

We are the unknown ones

if we entrust the names of those who live on

to numbers;

if we leave thousands of hopes

in the margin of the news;

if we fail to know

that every nameless body

was an entire world.

The executioners

aimed at your heart,

but did not know

that a heart beating for the homeland

cannot be silenced by a bullet.

Grief for you

weighs upon a nation;

not because death was your end,

but because your life

was a simple right

stolen from you.

Zahhak

paid the price;

and those who still

sit on a throne of blood

will one day,

before your name

and the names of all those who live on,

be called to account.

You were not unknown;

you were our sister,

you were the homeland’s wounded voice,

and for ever

in the people’s memory

you will live.