[PROVISIONAL TRANSLATION FROM PERSIAN]

[Translator’s notes appear in square brackets]

[Personal information has been redacted.]

[Website]

[The poem by 12-year-old Sami, for his mother, Sousan Tebyanian, who has been sentenced to one year in prison for defending her religion and belief.]

[Wednesday, 25 February 2015]

Where are you, O mother, your sorrow is my sorrow

Where are you, O mother, your joy is my joy

Where are you, O mother, when you come back I will fill the world with flowers

Where are you, O mother, when you come back I will gladden the world

Where are you, O mother, every night I am thinking of you

I cry out from the sadness of missing you

Where are you, O mother, I am counting the moments until you return

Where are you, O mother, I am dying of sorrow

Where are you, O mother, my longing for your embrace has filled my heart

Where are you, O mother, many things are in my heart

The things that I love, but they have been taken away

Where are you, O mother, that I must be deprived of you for a year

Where are you, O mother, I miss your loving ways

The whole world is filled with bullets

But I know that you have gone for the sake of eliminating those bullets

You have gone for the sake of peace and friendship

Your innocence is true

As their cruelty is true

For, how is it possible to separate a child from his mother?

To confine his innocent mother in a prison?

Where are you, O mother, for I miss you

My sorrow has now turned into a song

Where are you, O mother, where are you, mother

Mother I will love you wherever you are

Mother I love you

From Sami to my dear mother