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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing English-Chinese Edition January 2023
Dawn, poem by Bänoo Zan.
Dawn
For Sepideh Rashno
I am Dawn
My name starts the day
I signal the night’s retreat
I tear hijab from my head
The virtue matron bites my hand
records me on her phone
Revolutionary Guards arrest me the next day
I disappear
until they show me on TV—
my cheeks hollowed out
my face bruised
my gaze lowered—
Under a loose manteau—
bleeding—bones—and flesh—
They air my confession against the sun
when the night is ongoing
In a “secret” location in Evin
the interrogator-interviewer
will have no deviation from the script
Defiance costs me lashes
Submission gives me nightmares—
Torture interrogates my life
My name is Dawn
The day starts with my name
Who I am
is not who I am—in pain—
I am Dawn
and I tear the hijab
of the night
Author’s Note: Sepideh Rashno, a woman defying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s hijab edict who was arrested on June 15, 2022, and whose forced confession was aired on State TV on July 30. Her given name means “dawn.”
First published in Dissident Voice: A Radical Newsletter in the Struggle for Peace and Social Justice.
黎明
致Sepideh Rashno
我是黎明
我的名字开启白昼
我预示黑夜的退却
我从头上撕下头巾
贞操女卫士咬住我的手
用她的手机录下我
次日我被革命卫队逮捕
我消失了
直到他们在电视上播放——
我的脸颊深凹
我的面色紫青
我的视线低垂——
在松散的披风下——
骨头——和身体——流着血
逆着太阳他们播放我供认
当黑夜正在延续
在埃文的一个“秘密”地点
审讯者——被审者
将无法偏离脚本半分
挑衅让我挨鞭打
屈服让我做噩梦
酷刑盘查我人生
我的名字是黎明
白昼从我的名字开始
我是谁
不是本我——深陷痛苦——
我是黎明
我撕开
夜的头巾
作者注：塞皮德-拉什诺（Sepideh Rashno），一位反抗伊朗伊斯兰共和国头巾法令的女性，
于2022年6月15日被捕，7月30日在国家电视台播出了她被逼迫的供词。她的名字意为 “黎明”。
这首诗首次发表于《异见者之声》：为和平和社会正义而斗争的激进通讯。
Chinese translation © Anna Yin/© Bänoo Zan
班努·赞是一位诗人、编剧、翻译、教师、编辑和诗歌策展人，发表过250多首诗歌及有关作品，著有三本书。她是Shab-e She’r（诗歌之夜）创始人，加拿大最多样化的读诗及开麦系列（成立于2012年），给不同种族、宗教（或无宗教）、年龄、性别、风格、声音和视野的诗人及社区提供一个开放的空间，架钩桥梁。班努是2022年加拿大阿尔伯塔大学的驻校作家。
Bänoo Zan is a poet, librettist, translator, teacher, editor and poetry curator, with more than 250 published poems and poetry-related pieces as well as three books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Canada’s most diverse poetry reading and open mic series (inception: 2012), a brave space that bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, poetic styles, voices and visions. Bänoo is the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta, Canada, Sept 2022-May 2023.