A Ring to Me is Bondage by Mina Assadi

About the Author

Mina Assadi (1943) was born in the Mazandaran province of Iran. She has been living in exile in Sweden since 1988. As a writer-activist, she has championed the rights of the underprivileged (especially women and children) and political refugees like herself. She has won several awards and honours including a grant from the Human Rights Watch, USA. Assadi’s works are banned in Iran. She has collaborated with other activists and artists (like the singer Gisso Shakeri) to challenge the misogynist and gender-biased regime in Iran.

Text

A Ring to Me is Bondage 

I do not think of prayer-mats, 

But I do think of a hundred roads 

Which pass through a hundred gardens 

Full of silk-tassel trees; 

I know the Kibla;

It has its place where happiness is;

And I say daily prayers 

On the Silk Roads,

With the music of sparrows. 

I do not know what Affection means, 

Or what can be the difference 

between one land and the other. 

Aloneness is what I call Happiness 

And desert is what I call Home, 

And whatever makes me sad I call Love. 

To me a five-pound note means Wealth; 

I describe anyone who picks a flower as Blind;

and in my eyes a net, 

That separates the fish from water, 

is a Murderer. 

I look at the sea with envy 

And say to myself: 

“How small you are!” 

Perhaps the sea 

Also feels the same 

When it joins the ocean! 

I do not know what is Night, 

But Day is what I understand well. 

To me a flower-bush is a Village 

And a short walk in the gardens of memories, Freedom, 

And any meaningless smile, Joy. 

To me anybody who has a cage in his possession 

is a Gaoler; 

And I see any thought 

that may remain useless in my mind, 

as a Wall; 

To me a ring is Bondage. 

I do not think of prayer-mats, 

But I do think of a hundred roads 

Which pass through a hundred gardens 

full of silk-tassel trees.