On the Anniversary of August 19, 1953 Coup in Iran

I Do Not Want You, Petroleum




Majid Naficy

I don’t want
I don't want you, Petroleum!
For a long time,
I thought that you burnt for me.
Now I see that I am burning for you.

I'm not saying that it's not pleasant
Sitting near a kerosine heater
And watching the falling snow
Or listening to the sound of a water pump
In the confines of a farm.
And yet, I don’t want you,
Seven-headed dragon!
Fire still spews forth from your mouth
To the soul of my homeland.

In your school I learned servitude
So that the khan of the tribe
Could send his son to London .
The Imperial Army in the South
Forced me to abandon
The dream of a House of Justice.
On the street my blood was shed.
It turned into ink
For the pens which wrote
The new contracts of oil.
The Grand Gates of Civilization
Opened with your key.
Today the Antichrist gallops
On your golden donkey.

You lifted this state to a heavenly throne
You polished its boots to a sheen
You raised its seven-headed club
And whenever I jumped to pull it down
You supported its shaky body
With your sturdy beams.

No! I don't want!
I don't want you, Petroleum!
Oh, bloody stream!
For a long time,
I thought you gave me blood.
Now I see, you made me bleed.*

May 18, 1987

*-  On August 19, 1953 Mohammad Mosaddegh (1882-1967), the Iranian Prime Minister, was overthrown in a coup d'etat orchestrated by the American and British intelligence services, in collaboration with Kashani, a Germanophile fundamentalist clergy and Zahedi, a Nazi-sympathizer general. They gave absolute power to the Shah who had fled the country a few days earlier. In 1951, Mosaddegh led the movement for nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, which was under the control of the British.