This poem is full of  historical, georaphical, mythical references. It also points to a lot of other poems specially some poems of Sorhrab Sepehri. I have tried to provide non-persian redears with some hyperlinks. If you click on them and read patiently you may get a feeling of why racism and being an Iranian are not consistent.

 

My birth place is Iran
My genealogy may reach to a female poet	in Bukhara,
Or may reach to an immigrant man,	An Aryan who came calmly from east.
However, I know
My family tree may reach	From one direction,
To a hardworking Balouch	Or the Dastan’s hero(Ferdosi says Rostam, son of Dastan, was a real hero in Sistan, whom he made the story of Rostam about)
Or a Turk woman living as a cupbearer in Shiraz(Hafiz says: “if that Turk cupbearer capture my heart, I will donate two big cities of Samarkand and Bukhara”!!!)	Lover of gardens.
My Father may have been an Afghan	My mother may have been a slave to Genghis Khan.
My mom may have been a Christian woman	My father may have been Armenian.
Seeking a safe place ,	To live beside her, in Julfa.
My lineage may reach	From one end,
To a Mujahed man	Who came from Damascus.
And the other end may reach to a Zoroastrian woman	Who pronounced acceptance,
To not see the tyranny of this mobad	Despotism of that king.
My ancestry may reach	Still,
A Jewish man who became free	At the time of Cyrus,
Or a Zoroasterian	Nik  mother,
Who wouldn’t make muddy	the water flowing from the upper village.
Why are you looking my race up?
My birth place is Iran.
Born in Maku,	Or Sarakhs,
Or Zahedan,	Or Bam,
My genealogy may reach the history,	And the race of Adam.
And don’t forget   Amir H. ghaseminejad February 2011	The sky is mine.