Fatemeh
Translated By Armen Davoudian
Translated from the Persian
She wanted to name me “Hedieh”
a gift from another world
in her bulging belly.
She wanted to name me “Sepideh”
dawn exhaled from night’s black womb.
She wanted to name me “Yāsaman”
flower of the olive family
sprouting in the cold winter of the Revolution.
She wanted to name me “Lāleh”
wanted to name me “Ālāleh”
blooming from the nameless dead.
It was the second day of summer
wild poppies panted for rain
when my father pulled out his pocket Quran
and cut my cord with another name:
“Fatemeh”
daughter of “Mohammad”
“Fatemeh”
she who separates
she who is separated
like a newborn from her mother’s breast
like a name from all other names.
Notes:
The name Fatemeh, celebrated in Islam as the name of the daughter of the prophet Mohammad, traces back to the Arabic “F-Ṭ-M” (ف-ط-م), meaning “to separate, wean, cut something from another thing.”
Read the translator's note by Armen Davoudian.
Source: Poetry (March 2026)