A Mother's Day Poem

* This poem, entitled “Mother” (MAdar) was taught to generations of second graders in Iran. This is a rough translation, which does no justice to its beautiful Farsi original, which, nonetheless, I decided to produce in English today and share it with everyone for all the mothers and children out there.


Mother
By Iraj Mirza

They say upon giving birth to me,
She taught me to put my mouth to the breast and be fed.
She spent the nights awake at the side of my cradle,
And taught me how to fall asleep.
She placed a smile on my lips,
And taught a flower bud how to open up.
She took me by the hands and step by step,
Taught me the way to walk.
Letter by letter, she would place on my tongue,
And taught me words and how to talk.
So being that my existence is due to her existence,
As long as I exist is and she does too,
I will love her.