There are poems that speak about a specific country yet directly concern us. Insorge l’Iran - Iran erhebt sich (Iran Rises) by Gino Pacifico tells of Iran, of women's protests, flight, and violence – but beneath it lies a question that extends far beyond Iran: What does freedom mean today when people pay for it with fear, loss, and sometimes with their very lives?
Why these poems don't just speak of Iran
Iran is the political starting point of this collection. The protests after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, the courage of the women, the violence of a theocratic order, and the cry for freedom form its strongest core. Yet the poems are not confined to a distant reality. They touch upon something that readers in Europe also know: the feeling of being overwhelmed by news and yet searching for a human response.
This is precisely why these contemporary political poems are so immediate. They don't say: Look over there, something terrible is happening. They ask more quietly and urgently: What does this terrible thing do to us? Do we stay awake? Do we remain sensitive? Or do we get used to the idea that freedom is dangerous for other people?
Freedom as a human experience
In Iran Rises, freedom is not an abstract concept. It appears in breath, in walking, in gaze, in public space. It manifests where women no longer retreat, where a people lose their fear, where refugees, despite all danger, seek a life not dictated by violence. Freedom here is not celebratory, but vulnerable. It must be asserted.
This makes the collection so interesting for today's readers. We often talk about freedom as if it were self-evident. Pacifico's poems remind us that it is not. Freedom can be forbidden, controlled, mocked, persecuted. And yet it remains a fundamental human need. Those who read these poems encounter not political theory, but people seeking air, dignity, and a future.
Against the weariness of the present
Our present is full of images of crisis. War, displacement, repression, fanaticism, poverty, societal harshness – much of this reaches us daily and thereby threatens to lose its impact. Engaged literature cannot simply abolish this weariness. But it can change our perspective. It can make individual voices audible again where statistics and headlines have become abstract.
In an interview with the publisher, Gino Pacifico says: "Scrivere questi versi era importante perché il silenzio, in certi momenti, può diventare una forma di indifferenza." This sentence precisely captures the contemporary relevance of the book. Silence is not always peace. Sometimes silence is looking away. And sometimes it takes poems to interrupt that looking away.
If you would like to learn more about the historical background of the collection, you can also find our article on Mahsa Amini, Cutro, and the reality behind the poems. For the topicality of this collection arises precisely from the fact that its poems stem from real events.
What Europe reads in these poems
Europe is also present in this book. Not as a safe place of moral superiority, but as a space of responsibility. The poems about flight, the Mediterranean, and Cutro pose the uncomfortable question of how credible our compassion is. Those who speak of human rights must also look at those who fight for their lives at borders, on boats, and in camps.
Thus, the collection connects Iran, Europe, and human dignity in a way that is not didactic but stirring. The poems do not tell the reader what to think. But they make it difficult to remain untouched. They hold fast to a simple, almost old-fashioned conviction: that every life counts, that dignity is indivisible, and that freedom must never be merely the freedom of others.
A voice for the open question of our time
Insorge l’Iran - Iran Rises is therefore more than a collection about the Iran protests. It is a book about the fragility of freedom in our time. About women becoming visible. About people on the run. About violence masquerading as religious or political. And about the question of whether language can still preserve something when the world has become too loud.
This is precisely where its contemporary significance lies. These poems remind us that humanity does not remain automatically. It must be practiced, defended, articulated. Those looking for political poetry, literature on human rights, and bilingual contemporary literature will find here a book that does not soothe, but keeps one awake. With Iran Rises, Gino Pacifico directs our gaze to Iran – and at the same time to the moral questions that our present poses to all of us.
The book is available in Italian and German bilingual edition as a printed, paperback edition (ISBN 978-3-910347-89-2) and as an EPUB (ISBN 978-3-910347-90-8) in bookstores or here in the publisher's shop.
