I am a woman
I am a woman
I am from the ruins of smog and coyness
a woman
who from the beginning
has travelled across
the strong craving of the earth
to search for a drop of water
a woman
who from the beginning
has felt the heaviness of pain
barefoot with her lank cattle
from the arising to the setting of the sun
from dusk to dawn
on the threshing floor
I am a woman
I am from the homeless tribes of plains and mountains
a woman
who gives birth to her baby
in the mountains
and longs for her goat lost
in the depths of the desert
and mourns.
I am a mother
a sister
a spouse
a woman
a woman from the dead hamlets of the south
a woman
who from the beginning
has travelled barefoot across
this weary soil
I am from the small villages of the north
a woman
who from the beginning
has worked till the last drop of her strength
in rice fields and farms
I am a woman
a worker whose hands
operate huge factory machines
every day
the cogwheels sap her strength
in front of her eyes
a woman
who fattens bloodsuckers
by her life's vigour
and by her flowing blood
multiplies the profit of capitalists
Nowhere does your shameful culture allow
her hands to be smooth
her stature to be erect
her hair to be perfumed
I am a woman
with hands bleeding from
the sharp sword of pain and suffering
a woman
whose stature
because of your shameless thirst for bounty,
has been easily broken
under intolerable toil
a woman
whose heart
is brimming
with festering wounds of anger
a woman
who has the blood-red reflection
of freedom's bullets
swelling in her eyes
a woman
whose skin
is the sun's mirror of the desert
and her hair smells of smoke,
All of my stature
is an emblem of pain
and my body
is the embodiment of hatred
a woman
whose toil
has created the hands
to take up arms
I am a freedom fighter
a woman
who from the beginning
has travelled across plains
shoulder to shoulder
with her comrades and brothers
a woman
from whom
the powerful arms of the workers,
from whom
the powerful arms of the peasants,
have been created
I am a worker
I am a peasant.
English interpretation by: A. Behrang
