I have never feared death,

Even though its hands are heavier than nothingness.

My fear, though, is of dying on a land

Where the wage of a gravedigger

Is higher than

The price of a human’s freedom.

□

Searching

Finding

And then

Choosing at will,

And to build a bulwark

Out of oneself_

 

If death has a price higher than these,

Never, never, ever I am scared of death.

 
“از مرگ“
A poem by Ahmad Shamlou

Translated by myself.
First published in Derafsh-e Mehr.

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