Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel,
you, the one
which is touching the sky.
You're a tribute to Noah's Ark.
and you're the evergreen Tree of Life,
fascinating and whirling,
breathtaking and juicy,
giving life forever
to the tunes of Bolshoi Theatre
and the Broadway Stage,
while a gust of wind
splashes a whirlwind
round the Earth.

While the music of Beethoven
and Chopin, and Mozart,
engulfs the world
into a philharmonic of all,
the divine one, of God.
No place is left behind:
neither New York's Manhattan
nor Tahrir Square in Cairo.
Neither streets of Tehran
nor Brussels, nor Paris.
Neither villages
in the vicinity of the Tatras
nor the ones in Himalayas.

Tower of Babel,
a skyscraper which reaches
beyond the sky, to the heavens!
Tower of glass, silver and gold
fixed with ambers and diamonds
to dazzle the eyes of women,
to muster sparks of desire
inside men
and then the passion of love
in their women, their muses of beauty.
Love of pure light, fire and water
love fulfilled into elixirs of eternity.

Tower of Babel,
the one of people
from around the world.
The tower of variety
of languages
as different as people themselves.
The tower of cultures,
of a tremendous mosaic
of visions, and ideas, of desires.
The tower of world religions,
ideologies and systems.
The tower which says no
to any clash of civilizations.
No, no, no! …

But the tower which preaches
principles of liberty,
which like the sunshine
should belong to all of us.
The echo spreads further and further,
and flies around the globe,
into every town and village,
into each house, of the rich and the poor
No wars please, no blood!
Oh no, no no ! …
And the echo goes on and on.
Echo after echo, after echo…

The music is the one
of Les Miserables and of the Cats,
of the Phantom of the Opera…
Dancers dance wildly,
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov,
Alexander Godunov,
Yekaterina Krysanova,
Pavel Dmitrichenko ...
Rio de Janeiro samba
is in full swing.
People are dancing,
my friends withe them
Fátima, Elizabeth,
Mark, Ryan, John, Jahanshah...
Oh yes, the world goes round!

Tower of Babel,
shiny outside, troubled inside.
The West and the East,
the European Union and China,
Americas, Asia and Africa.
The traumatic events,
the Arab Spring.

The sufferings of Iranian people
under their ayatollahs.
For more than millennium!
Nasrin Sotoudeh,
the Iranian human rights lawyer
and mother of two small children
who had to stay in a prison for a long time!
What's for ?!

There are also other lawyers,
journalists, writers, ordinary people
imprisoned despite being
innocent.
World, they are innocent!
Ahmad Zeidabadi, Saeed Matinpour,
Arash Saghar, Abolfazi Abedini Nasr,
Mohammad Davari, Siamak Ghaderi,
Kamal Sharifi, Masoud Bastani,
and so many others!
In hundred of thousands!

They just want a free Iran,
just a secular parliamentary democracy.
They want mullahs back in their mosques
and never again in politics.
They want freedom for all,
believers and non-believers.
For Christians, Bahai's, Jews...
For all !!

Millions of Iranians were murdered
since the emergence of the Islamic Iran.
"No more Ayatollah Khamenei,
no more mullahs!"
There are heard angry shouts.
Yes, they have it enough!
They want freedom
now and only now!
Now, now, now !!

An Iranian singer sings
with a brilliant voice.
Oh, Neda, Shahla, Delara, Soraya,
Innocent, the angels of Iran!
You who died young to be alive forever!
Being sunshine of Iran, and rain, and the wind!
You, the queens of colors and sounds!
Oh yes! You will all be reborn
to witness Persia coming
out of the centuries' chains,
and out of the cracks in the walls of Iran,
via the Heavens Gate!
And through those killing Sharia stones!

Oh, Delara, the prisoner of colors!
Oh, Soraya, the angel of freedom!
Oh, Shahla, the muse of love!
Oh, Neda, an innocent victim!
Oh, Nasrin, the lawyer for human rights!
You are all tunes of the philharmonic music!
The Manifesto of Liberation of Women
and the gateway to a new life, wide open!
You are the new Iran,
sparkling in the rays of stars!
Coming back to what belongs to you!
You, the reborn women of Iran!
You, the lionesses of Iran !!

The singer continues singing,
this time even louder,
with a voice which is touching the sky
as much as the Tower of Babel itself:

Hey, Iranian women!
This is my tribute to you all.
Hey, Iranian women!
Howling at the sunrise
and crying at the sunset.
Hey, Iranian women!
You, the roses
of the Iranian nation!

Hey, Iranian women!
Walking on streets
and paths full of thorns!
Hey, Iranian women!
Walking on floors
of your own houses,
filled with thorns!

Hey, Iranian women!
Crying up into the sky!
And yet no one hears you!
Hey, Iranian women!
You will never give up!
You will change this country!

Hey, Iranian women!
Your new Iran shows up on the horizon!
a free Iran and forever yours!
The singer sings it again,
even louder, divinely!
And then although he stopped
with his singing,
there is echo and echo,
and echo after echo...
His song spreads all over the world,
again and again, and again ...

We all know
there is no longer a place
for brutal dictatorships
which want to take away
the best what we can have,
something what is shining
in our minds and our selves,
like a star on a nightly sky,
and like a sun on a bright day,
our freedom!
Liberty !

Then another Iranian, also a poet,
begins to recite his poetry
about Sakineh Ashtiani
Everyone already knows
she was sentenced
to be stoned to death,
like many other women before her.

To a barbaric stoning,
with thousands of stones
until the last breath is gone
and all the stones are
in a colour of blood.
Luckily, the world public
stood up in her defence
and still watches over her.
Thank you, the world!

The voice of the poet fills the air,
like a philharmonic music on
a ship dancing
to the movements
of the wild sea's tides.

' Oh, Sakineh! You are our light
and we are your light!
Like all the burning candles
over the world!
Like all stars shining
in the universe!

Oh, Sakineh! You are our light
and we are your light!
Despite you lying
in a dark cell in your prison,
so terribly dark, and cold,
and forever cursed!
But thanks to us
and our words of support for you
in Facebook, on Twitter
and through our e-mails
you're still alive.

Oh, Sakineh! You are our light
and we are your light!
You were born a simple woman,
and now you're a goddess,
a symbol of all those innocent women
whose lives were ended in prisons.
Nobody dares to bring a hand on you
as long as we care for you.
You can be sure
the angels of spirit
swirl around you.
Be sure of it !

Oh, Sakineh! You are our light
and we are your light!
The present day is hard
but the future must be bright
in your country since ancient Persia,
your Iran!
No! The darkness
can no longer be the ruler !
And yes, there must be
as many candles lit up
as there are women
in the whole of Iran
and around the world.
Like a statue of a woman!
A statue of a woman,
like an echo, forever!
Oh, Sakineh! You are our light
and we are your light! '

My thoughts are like lightning
in the sky,
spread to all the corners of the world.
What about Javid Houtan Kian,
the Sakineh's lawyer
thrown into jail, tortured ?

What about
the many other prisoners
whose only "fault" was
the desire of freedom?
Must they pay so ruthlessly the price
for their love of their country?
The Shakespearean love, indeed !?
What is their future?
In prison? For years?
Or worse, to be hung?

What about victims
elsewhere in the world?
What about the Arab spring?
Is this a Copernican change?
Or just a prologue
to yet another tyranny?

What about so many
other tyrannies?
What about Pussy Riots,
the feminist rock group
jailed by a Russian court?

What about Asia Bibi,
a Christian woman in Pakistan
unjustly inprisonned
for the so called blasphemy ?
What about Saeed Malekpour,
a Canadian behind bars in Iran?
What about Yulia Tymoshenko?
What about Byron Case,
jailed for life in the USA
despite being innocent?

What about Christian Copts
in Egypt,
living in a country
which deprives them of their rights?
What about Jews and Palestinians
in the twilight of treason?
Can't they live together
in their own secular country?

What about Bahai's in Iran
and elswhere?
What about Kurds,
Tibetians as well?
What about Death Camps
in North Korea?
What about women
in the Middle East,
disregarded their entire lives?

Oh, Tower of Babel,
the one from every corner of Earth
to the heaven's heights.
Full of glass, silver and gold,
so wonderfully fixed with ambers
and the glistening diamonds.
Sparkling through the mirrors
with the rays of the Sun
and filled with dreams,
visions, desires, determination...
Overfilled at the same time
by the sea of blood,
innocent blood down there
in the lands of Cain and Abel.

You, the one as alive
as are people
in every country of this world.
Please, set fire to the rain
of the tyrannies…
Don't let people suffer anymore!
And spread the elixir of light,
the light of freedom,
to all the needy
in this troubled world!
Show us the path
towards liberty!
It's now or never!
Now or never !!

Yes, it's time to implant
sparks of freedom !
Oh, long live liberty!
Long live Tower of Babel !!

More poetry here / Meer poëzie hier:
http://www.funworldstar.com/GezichtvanGod/index.html
e-mail: tadekhutyra@hotmail.com

  Copyright © Thaddeus T. Hutyra