Iranian Laborer Poet-Sabir Haqa

Sabir Haqa is an Iranian poet. Laborers are there. Live in Tehran. Since poetry does not fill stomach, you have to carry bricks to earn money.

Sabir Haqa

Sabeer Haka

Sabeer Haka was born in 1986 in Kermanshah, Iran. He is now a construction worker and lives in Tehran. Two of his collections of poetry have been published in Iran and in 2013 he won first prize in the Iranian Workers’ Poetry Competition.

Sabeer’s work has brought him little in the way of financial reward and with no support from social security he knows poverty from the inside. ‘I’m tired,’ he says in an interview, ‘I’m very tired. My tiredness goes back to before my birth. I was a worker since my mother carried me in her womb while working, and I felt her exhaustion. Still her tiredness is in my body.’

Sabeer says that he has no place to sleep in Tehran and sometimes he walks all night. He hasn’t been able to work on his novel for the last twelve years. The translators have used brackets to indicate that a word has been censored in the original poem.

Sabir says in an interview, "I am tired. Tired as hell. I'm already tired before I was born. My *mom* used to labor while raising me in her womb, I've been a laborer ever since. I can feel my *mom* tiredness. Her tiredness is still in my body. ''

Sabir reveals that in Tehran he has no sleeping place and spends many nights wandering on the road. This is why in the past twelve years they haven't been satisfied enough to complete their novel.

Two of his poetry collections have been published so far and Iran workers have won first prize in poetry competition.

--------------------................-------------------

1- *friends*

I am not a friend of 'God'

There is only one reason for this

Whose roots are very old past:

When our family of six

Lived in a tight room

And (God) had a big house

In which he lived alone

2- *gun*

If they hadn't invented a gun

So how many people, from a distance,

Would have been saved from being killed.

Many things get easier.

Also making them realize the power of laborers

Would have been a lot easier.

3- * House *

I can say this word for the whole world

I can say for every country in the world

I can even say to the sky

Even everything in this universe.

But to this no window rental room in Tehran

Can't say,

I can't call it home.

4- *Hope*

My father was a labor

A man full of faith

Whenever he used to offer namaz

(Allah) used to be embarrassed to see their hands.

5-*(God)*

God is also a laborer

Surely he would be the welder of welders too.

In the evening light

Her eyes are red like embers,

The night on her shirt

The holes are the holes.

* Mulberry *

Have you ever seen a mulberry,

Where it falls, on the ground

Her red juice gets stained.

Nothing is more painful than falling.

How many laborers have I seen

Falling from the buildings,

Becoming a mulberry by falling.

@@@@@@@

Translation Geet Chaturvedi

Courtesy: Sher Singh

Ajay Yadav