Last week we posted a report from Revolution Books Berkeley staff about the inspiring “Evening of Poetry for the Mahsa Jina Amini Uprising and the Heroic Political Prisoners in Iran,” co-sponsored by the IEC, on September 17, 2023.
Rafael Jesús González, first Poet Laureate of Berkeley in 2017, read the following poem in Spanish and then English for the event, and gave permission to publish it here.
Rafael Jesús González reading his poem “El Cabello de la mujer/The Hair of Women” at Revolution Books Berkeley in 2023. Photo: IEC
Among his many honors and achievements, Mr. González received the César E. Chávez Lifetime Award in 2013 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Berkeley in 2015 and was named the City of Berkeley's first Poet Laureate in 2017. He is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature at numerous colleges, including Oakland’s Laney College, where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Department.
At the Evening of Poetry, he introduced his reading this way: “I was born and raised right on the U.S. border. So, consequently, most of my poems are written in the two languages.”
A video of the evening is on the Revolution Books website.
Poetry event at Revolution Books in Berkeley, September 17, 2023.
El Cabello de la Mujer
a Jina Mahsa Amini
(21/9/1999 – 16/9/2022)
El cabello de las mujeres rizado
como fina lana merina o como
el zarcillo de la parra o ondulado
como las ondas en un estanque
o lacio como la crin de un caballo
no debe ser visto en público
dicen los hombres que gobiernan
porque dicen que incita
la lujuria de los hombres según su
idea de dios tóxica, patriarcal.
Pero la opresión engendra rebelión
y tu corazón estalló con necesidad
de libertad, de dejar al sol calentar
tu pelo suelto para que el viento
lo peinara, la luna lo acariciara.
Por este simple acto te tomaron,
te encarcelaron, te golpearon y moriste.
Pero tu muerte fue chispa que encendió
en llamas la yesca de las vidas recortadas
de las mujeres y ellas tomaron
a las calles por el mundo entero.
En pie, hermanas, por la mujer, la vida,
libertad, y nosotros sus hermanos
estamos con ustedes porque nadie
es libre si las mujeres no lo son.
© Rafael Jesús González 2023
The Hair of Women
for Jina Mahsa Amini
(9/21/1999 – 9/16/2022)
The hair of women, tightly-curled
as fine merino wool or loosely
like the vine’s tendril, or wavy
like ripples in a pond,
or straight as a horse’s mane,
must not be seen in public
say the men who rule
because they say that it incites
men’s lust according to their
idea of god, toxic, patriarchal.
But oppression breeds rebellion
and your heart burst with need
of freedom, to let the sun warm
your hair let loose for the wind
to comb it, the moon caress it.
For this simple act you were taken,
imprisoned, beaten, and you died.
But your death was a spark that set
aflame the tinder of women’s
curtailed lives and they took
to the streets worldwide.
Stand, sisters, for the woman, life,
freedom, and we your brothers
stand with you because no one
is free unless women are.
© Rafael Jesús González 2023