MOHSEN
MOHSEN
SOLTANY/DATSON
ALBUM
$20.00
LYRICS © Mohsen Soltany
MUSIC © Geoffrey Datson 2001
REVIEWS
The Wall
Artist: Mohsen with vocals by Annette Hughes
Album: demo
Mohsen Soltanyzand is a refugee from Iran who endured 4 years ddetention
in Australia. Mohsen is also a poet who writes about his experiences
with a stark reality. Sydney musicians Annette Hughes and Geoffrey Datson
have been visiting Mohsen for about a year, and have set some of his
lyrics to music. This is a sample of the collaboration - a sparse tune
driven by middle eastern sounds and basic percussion, showcasing the
husky vocals of Annette who almost chants the lyrics. Lovely production
and an important message that needs to be heard. All proceeds from the
CD go to Chilout, a campaign to get children out of detention.
Dan Buhagiar - Wobbly Radio
PRESS
HQ #95 p 22
MOHSEN has dedicated this
album to the children in detention.
All proceeds from the sale
of this album go to chilout.
GEOFFREY
DATSON
I began visiting Villawood
merely to see for myself what was really going on. We were introduced
to Mohsen on the first day, and triedto visit as often as possible.
Much of the afternoon on these days was spent copying out his handwritten
poems, going over them with him, as he refered constantly to an Arabic
pocket translator.
We'd take the words back to the studio and try to come up with beats
and sounds that worked with his words. The vocal track on Sunset, the
first one recorded, like many of the songs on the album was recorded
in one take. I asked the vocalists to get a feel for the music first,
and then get them to do one pass without stopping. Invariably, that
first take was the most tentative and the most expressive. All credit
for the melodies goes to the girls who found them and plucked them out
of the ether. Having no idea how the melody will go until you are doing
it in the booth puts you in a kind of 'nowhere land'; not knowing what
will come next, always dependent on the previous note for a clue to
the next one. There is no time but the present in this situation, much
like where Mohsen had been for the past four years - in limbo.
As a result of our collaboration, I have come to experience his poetry
mouth to ear - the way it is meant to be, and he has introduced me to
the archaic beauty of Arabic musical forms. Meeting Mohsen has reinforced
the music I have always heard. It is like a circle that has been completed
creatively, as my first instrument was an Appalachian Dulcimer, which
originated in that region.
To my mind, since being here, he has become an Australian poet. He is
writing in Australia about Australia for Australians, so by definition
is now part of our 'cultural product' that we hope will find its audience.
Mohsen's love and longing for beauty and justice corresponds to mine.
I have listened to his heart and can find no hatred there, although
his life behind razor wire held little promise. I am inspired by his
positivism and humour in spite of his interminable incarceration.
Since having had the opportunity to know Mohsen and many other detainees,
it has become increasingly difficult to tolerate the constant and systematic
denigration of these people, or understand how our Government can treat
them with such disdain, and downright callousness.
Happily, Mohsen was finally lreleased in January 2003. He is free on
a full visa and welcome in my home.
THE
ARTISTS
ANNETTE
HUGHES
On her first visit to Villawood she was sickened by the sight of the
razor wire, and then appalled by the stories she was told by detainees,
especially the youths - the same age as her own son - who are being
forced to spend their innocent adolescent lives in prison. She sings
three of the songs and has produced the album in the hope that music
will in some way counter the process of demonisation that has already
begun.
YVETTE DUNCAN
Actress (Praise and Garage Days soon to be released) and presenter on
MTV, Yvette has added her voice to the album because of her concern
about the issue of youth suicide. She is deeply involved with the Reachout
program, and sees the correlation between youth suicide rates in the
community and the attempts by youths in detention on their own lives.
JANE CAMACHO
Jane is a young film maker and singer. She made her first visit to Villawood
to meet Mohsen after she had recorded her song, and began to think seriously
about the issue. There she met detainees and heard their stories, and,
as with most first time visitors, spent the trip back to the city in
a state of shock.
MATT REDALL
Matt is a sound engineer and musician who has donated hours of spare
time to getting the album sounding right. Much of the recording was
done in less than perfect circumstances, and were it not for his calm
pragmatism, and hundreds of hours of time, the album would still not
be ready.
THE
LYRICS
1.
when it rains (DOWNLOAD ONLY)
lyrics Soltany Zand, female vocals Jane Camaho
Tell the ground to open its mouth and eat me.
I am alone now, cannot believe you are gone.
Just the same way that I did not believe when you came.
You came from the road without any warning,
And all my love and heart then belonged to you.
You leave without any warning and leave me
alone with my bitter silence and loneliness.
[May it come to you]
I have no control over the
will and desire to see you
You come and go as you wish. My wounded heart
is counting the moments to see you again.
I had no will and control over this friendship and never will
You even stole my lonely life. Go and I wish you success.
But be sure when it rains it reminds you of my tears.
I wish that your loneliness comes to an end.
[May it come to you]
Mohsen gave us this poem on our third visit as a reminder that we had
befriended him - he ad no choice in the relationship, but he ironically
suggests at the end that we'd be lost without him. And he is right.
2. sunset
lyrics Soltany Zand, vocals Annette Hughes, Jane Camaho, music Matt
Redall
The sun sits on the horizon,
warm & ancient.
Coming close to darkness it projects a bold shade of red.
For the heart of the world, a beautiful view.
Some people are passionate.
Others are narrow-minded and close their eyes
To the law of life.
The red shade is a message, a gift to the people,
The world becoming dark.
Night is rising and the day is finished.
Night brings mourning to the sunset.
The tears of the night are the stars in the sky.
Flickering, crying for the day.
Some nights there is moonlight for the morning.
Some days the bright sun can be hidden by cloud.
Sometimes the sky cries raindrops, sometimes blood.
A falling star, a meteor can clean the face of the sky.
Wiping away the tears.
When the sky is upset and cries the wind is its comfort.
Sometimes light in the moon, light in the sky, makes the light of love.
When the sky is upset in its heart dew spreads on the ground in the
morning.
If I go into the sunset I have no sky.
I have no moon or clouds for crying.
Nor wind to make me comfortable.
I have no falling star or meteor.
I sleep on the ground with more and more soil on top of me.
All alone.
Animals may have a party feasting on my body.
If I make a party for animals.
Then I am alive with myself.
In Port Headland the sun sets over the Indian
Ocean and desert, lighting up blood red skies above an immense ancient
landscape. It's not quite so picture postcard from behind razor wire.
3. you
lyrics Soltany Zand, vocals Yvette Duncan
Everytime I sleep I search
for the dream of
love.
You
are the story of
love
Your name
is as beautiful as
love.
Everytime I try to write
love.
I write your name
You
are the histroy of being
You
are the reason I breathe
You
are sweet dreams of
love
for me. They say you are a dream
You
are my guardian angel
They say if I am good my guardian angel
Will stay with me forever
You
are my reason for being
You
intoxicate me
You
are just
love
4.
the wall
lyrics Soltany Zand, vocals Annette Hughes,
Music traditional arrangement by Geoffrey Datson
In the distance I can see a ruined wall
hear the whirl of the wind there
as I approach the wall I sense
that there are people behind it.
I get closer to the wall
I smell a perfume from the past
I reach the wall
My heart is beating faster
What's behind the wall,
why are they so quiet?
If there are people there,
why can't I feel their breath?
I look over the wall
Yes, as I guessed,
there are many people here.
But everyone is silent
They cannot even move
There are so many,
from every land of the past
So many, but they do not speak.
Awake, they might have been enemies,
But they lie side by side like lovers, all sleep.
with out breathing,
peaceful,
Together behind the wall.
The most extraordinary thing about the detention centre visiting yard
is the mix of people from all over the world who in their own countries
are forced to kill each other, but here, have become friends, forced
as they are to co-exist. Safe behind the cemetery wall we are all share
our common humanity.
5.
Suicide
lyrics Soltany Zand, vocals Geoffrey Datson
Destiny, I am looking for you.
In the nights, in the sky
all day I follow you.
Where are you, in past memories or in the future?
Destiny, where are you?
I want to find you
I want to end your brutality
Hey, destiny, I will find you
I will face your brutality
With all my might
This word may be your last,
For know this, destiny
I can mark a full stop to your sentence
I could kill you
And will,
When I die.
When the only control you have over your life
is to take it, it is not surprising that so many youths in detention
have attempted suicide. Perhaps this is a clue to the cause of the growing
rate of youth suicide in Australia.
6.
Advance Asylum fair
lyrics/vocals Geoffrey Datson [for Mohsen]
I met a man who's locked
up. He doesn't think it's all right.
I'm inclined to agree, considered it day and night.
His only crime, as far as I can tell
Is to disagree with his government.
And that goes for me as well
So if you think it's all right, yet he and I agree,
Maybe you should meet him, for yourself and see.
Well, he's not as tall as Bin Laden, and funnier than Ali G,
But mainly most of all, he's the same as you and me.
He came into our country on a boat or in a plane.
They'll kill him back at home, so he can't go there again.
So he's locked up in detention, writing in a book,
About the southern stars, you should go and have a look.
It's beautiful in his mind; I've been there.
I didn't meet any terrorist, just some guy who cares.
I told, him about a case at law,
The doctor who is sued for making a phone call,
Or the council that’s responsible for sand under the sea.
So welcome loony poet, swim in here to me.|
Yeah, I understand the argument for a balanced economy,
But all the oil behind Afghanistan, won't set your grandchildren free.
To keep him locked up is costing 5 times the dole,
But he can lecture me on Persian History and is welcome in my home.
They say he's crazy and needs protection from himself
But Irony of ironies, the razor wire's provided by our commonwealth.
I know it isn't logical. I know that it is wrong.
I know it isn't reasonable, that’s why I've got this song.
I repeat it isn't fair, I repeat it is not right.
Help me with this problem so we can all get sleep tonight.
7. if one person dies
lyrics Soltany Zand, female vocals Annette Hughs
Published in Heather
Tyler's Asylum (Lothian Press, 2003)
If one person dies,
there is always one who will bury them.
If a bird falls from the sky,
there is one who will mend its broken wing.
If a building collapses,
Someone will dig to rescue survivors.
After the deluge,
The ones who are left will search for loved ones.
There are still just consciences.
We are the dying,
just barely breathing
We are the birds,
hearts pierced by the arrow of faith
We cry out from beneath
the rubble of humanity
Washed up by the flood to this shore
We are innocents who have kissed
the noose of Australian Democracy
We were the fan to the political fire,
who now find ourselves in the flames.
We who believed in the dream of freedom,
are stuck fast in a quagmire of prejudice.
You are the only hope after God
And you are the light in the darkness of Australian politics
You are the ones who are left
We hear the voice of conscience though your mouths.
(This poem was reads to
thousands at the refugee day rallys held across Australia in 2002.)
This poem was read to thousands at Refugee day rallies across Australia.
An expression of thanks on behalf of the people in detention to those
who continue to campaign for justice and human rights.
8. Mother
By Mohsen Soltany Zand for
his mother, spoken in his native Farsi.
The words may be foreign, but the emotion, love
and heartbreak of his delivery is universal.
[English translation]
The shame is aflame on my pen
The embarrassment burning my paper
My head is bowed in beseeching
I swear to god I want nothing but for you to forgive me
I've done things that were wrong
But you never ever blamed me
Your eyes full of kindness, never scolding
I yelled at you and shouted
I was rude and disrespectful I pushed your patience
You were sorrowful for what would become of me.
In the dark of night you prayed for me to Allah
You cried for me .You made wishes, you appealed.
You settled on the prayer mat. You prayed to Allah for me.
Every second you called to Allah for me
Forgive me, please forgive me
Happy Mother's day, please forgive me
I now your heart is larger than the ocean
For love, I've no way to tell you
Just forgive me, for the sake of Fatimah,
please forgive me. Happy mother's day.
MORE
POEMS by Mohsen
Don't
Cry For Me
Don't cry for me
my hair is going grey
Don't cry for me,
sorrow has broken my heart
Don't cry for me ,
life has slapped y face red
Don't cry for me
day and night are the same
Don't cry for me
sunrise and sunset are no different in my heart
Don't cry for me
autumn and spring are the same
Don't cry for me
let me remain alone
Don't cry for me
allow me my destitiution
Don't cry for me
let me become the echo of a name to you
Don't cry for me.
Where is the Melody?
I want to sing,
Want to shout,
Want to sing the song of life.
Were is life?
Must sing of love.
Where is the poem?
Song should be sung with poetry.
A poem with no reason has no meaning.
So where is the reason?
You are the reason,
The reason is your name.
There is no song more melodic than your name,
No poem more meaningful than your look,
No shout louder than your love's honesty,
So I seek your name.
The only song of my existence.
SEAGULL
I want to keep the colour of your eyes in my dreams
I want to keep memories of your kindness to my loneliness
I want to see the dreams, sweet dreams.
I want to relieve the past with you.
I want to confess and tell you
I want to tell you and give my heart relief
I want to touch your warm hand one more time
I want to see the desire and love in your eyes once again
I want to be a butterfly and fly around your candle in the dark night
I want to burn my wings on your flame
I want you to be a soft flower on the hill of my heart
I want to fly above you, singing
I want you t be the sea of my passion
I want to be the seagull that goes to die in your sea.
I want, but I don't know how…
I want, maybe never.
FAITHFUL
Why are you looking for someone?
Why are you searching in your mind for something?
What do you want to find?
Who are you looking for?
What are you really searching and looking for?
You can't find anything in the desert of my loneliness
You can find nothing, just my loneliness
I don't know which hand will take mine
I don't know who would enter my lonely desert
I don't know what loneliness is trying to tell me
But I know enough that loneliness is always faithful.
Lonely
Forever
I was a green spring leaf
By now I am withered and autumn red
I was the rush of the river
But now I am a slave to ice
I was a soft spring flower's petal
But now I am blanketed by snow.
I was a raft
But now I am adrift in the desert
I was the wind,
But now I am in the eye of a cyclone
I was a wave,
But now I am a surguing tsunami
Now, without song I am mute
Now I am lonely forever.
I am looking but I see nothing
I am looking but I see nobody
I am looking but I see only myself
I am looking but I see nobody
Just my loneliness
If You
Want to Go
Every second passes like a year
Every year without spring
Every spring without flowers
Every Flower without colour.
Ashes. Everywhere I go
finds a dead end in my heart.
My heart is always
waiting forever sweating,
sweat that is sour,
Sour like poison,
Poisonous pain of destiny,
Destiny is not clear.
Every aim is without belief
Belief is for nothing
Nothing is all life is without you.
True Freedom
I am running;east,west,north,south,
I want to run until my feet cannot keep up,
I run because it makes me feel free,
There is no fence anymore,
I want to shout,
And celebrate this happiness,
Sit with friends and drink together.
Oh,pity on me,
what kind of party will it be?
Which friends?
Still now some of my friends are detained behind the fence,
Still now children sit behind the fence,
looking away and dreaming of freedom,
Still now mothers feed their babies,eyes full of tears
from the pain of "Australian kindness ",
Still now children go to bed with frightened faces,
the officer ’s pager their lullaby,
Still now there are children who light a candle for Jesus,
and ask,"If Jesus is real,why doesn ’t he listen?",
Still now there are people who reassure them,every minute
that they care,
Still now people bleed from the knife of indifference
plunged into their hearts,
Still now some would rather kill themselves
than face deportation back to their country.
There may be no fence for me,
But there is a fence that limits all my memory,
This fence has enveloped all my heart,mind,existence.
My work begins now,
I have to run ...
You,who are reading this,
Come with me,
Me and you make "we ",
Together we can all escape,
I know that I can never forget ,
But come and run with me,
You will give me the courage to
take the black curtain from my memory,
But first,let ’s have a party,
And "we "celebrate by wearing our shoes,
And "we "will never take off our shoes
until we all reach true freedom.
