Darya Saudade

“In this way, moral formation is not individual; it is relational. Character is not something you build sitting in a room thinking about the difference between right and wrong and about your own willpower. Character emerges from our commitments. If you want to inculcate character in someone else, teach them how to form commitments—temporary ones in childhood, provisional ones in youth, permanent ones in adulthood. Commitments are the school for moral formation. When your life is defined by fervent commitments, you are on the second mountain.”
― David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life

“I am with you, rafēgh (comrade)
By Siavash Kasrai
Translation: Darya Saudade
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I am with you, rafēgh (comrade),
in wherever you are and struggle.

I am your neighbor
when, beside the window in the evening's gaze,
you hum the people’s anthem to yourself.

I walk in step with you
when, devoted to anxiety and eagerness,
you hand out a nightly leaflet to every passerby in the alley,
with the ring of every word,
you awaken
a heart,
a city, a whole homeland.

I am with you
when among the people,
like a restless fish in water,
you slide and come and seek,
and warn the sleeping of the flood coming.

I work alongside you
when the body is worn out from work,
but, in the fields, the factories,
you keep working,
you keep working.

I am your fellow-sufferer
when with the caress of your hands
you beckon the child to patience,
as if awakening a bud from its slumber

I am your fellow inmate
when you fill the dragging moments
with forgotten memories
in the corner of your confinement
or in the fever of torture and the throes of anguish.

No, my soulmate, my comrade, no,
I won’t leave you alone,
when at an unknown dawn
you sacrifice
your life
for ideals and love.

I am with you, rafēgh,
I am with you, rafēgh,
In wherever I am and struggle.
In wherever you are and struggle.”
― Siavash Kasrai

“بپاخیزید، همچون شیران پس از خواب
در شماری شکست‌ناپذیر،
زنجیرهای خود را همچون شبنم به زمین بیفکنید
که در خواب بر شما افتاده بود-
شما بسیارید - آنها اندک‌اند.


پرسی شلی”
― پرسی شلی

“تو مثل لاله‌ی پیش از طلوع دامنه‌ها
- که سر به صخره گذارد،
غریبی و پاکی
تو را، ز وحشت توفان، به سینه می‌فشرم
عجب سعادت غمناکی!”
― منوچهر آتشی, آواز خاک