On Death by Ahmad Shamlou

Never have I dreaded death
thought its hands were more brittle than banality itself.
My concern—anyhow—is entirely that of dying in a land
where a grave-digger’s wages
exceed the worth of human freedom.

To search
to discover
and then
to choose of one’s will
and to project the essence of oneself into a fortress—

Even if death could bring a higher price than all this
I deny, and again deny, that I have ever dreaded death.

From: Shamlu, Ahmad and Mohaghegh, Jason Bahbak (transl.), Born Upon the Dark Spear: Selected Poems of Ahmad Shamlu, 2015, Contra Mundum Press: New York, p. 47.
(https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Born_Upon_the_Dark_Spear.html?id=8YL1jgEACAAJ)

Date: 19?? (original in Farsi); 2015 (translation in English)

By: Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000)

Translated by: Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh (1979- )