Aug 17 2007
Shake!
Permission to speak, Sir!*
If the bull slipped**
If the rooftop dropped
Would we always die under all the steel beams?
Teacher stirred his face
Peeled his hands from the pit of his pockets
And the sky sat on whatever grade it was.
Crushed desks!
The lessons that fell out of the children’s hands!!
And the walls, what they did not dream for the people!!!
A little hand crops up from the rubble
And a single finger speaks!!
Permission, Sir!
May I rise up?
tr. Niloufar Talebi©2004
*Schoolchildren in Iran ask permission for XYZ by raising their hand above their head indicating their index finger.
** According to an ancient Persian Myth of Creation, the earth rotates on the horn of a bull. Legend was if the bull coughed, the earth would slip off its horn, causing an earthquake.