Music & Lyrics: Shahin Najafi

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Istadeh Mordan (Dying Standing Up)

A severed head in between your hands
my gaze on the burst clock

And sad and rebellious poems
and the tired wolf unafraid of the gun

On my doubts of the origin of existence
on choking loneliness when drunk

And yearning for you and inhaling
and the depth of the tragedy, not seeing you

The artery which its fate is obstruction
and your crime an outcry against the wind

The end of the story is always a bitter one
and the poet whose conviction is apostasy


The good God sleeping in my book
the dried semen on my bed

The good God of wrath, death, and Fatwa*
and my cries over Yaghma's poem**

Call me to remain being cactus
stay by my side and reading poetry

By your side to covenant with the desert
that our secret code is to die standing up


Say my story was a tale of blood
wickedness that was arising from insanity

Say how we did not give in
Say that we died and we stood up



Shahin Najafi
*Fatwa: Religious Edict
**Yaghma: Yaghma Golrouee

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