Some books do not arise from tranquility, but from a moment when silence has become impossible. Insorge l’Iran - Iran Rises by Gino Pacifico is one of those books. This bilingual collection of poems plunges the reader into a present where freedom is not abstract but becomes tangible: in streets, in voices, in gestures, in the refusal to be ruled by fear any longer.
A Volume of Poetry on Resistance and Dignity
At the heart of the volume are the protests in Iran following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, the courage of the women, the violence of the theocracy, and the desire for a life without subjugation. Pacifico does not write from the distance of a political commentator. He seeks human proximity. In these poems, Iran does not primarily appear as a state, not as geopolitical news, but as a girl, as a boy, as a crowd, as an awakened body. This is precisely what gives the uprising its true power.
The title itself is a statement. Iran Rises describes not a concluded historical moment, but a movement. The book asks what happens when people no longer accept fear as fate. Protest turns into dignity. Silence becomes public space. Political violence becomes the question of how a person can remain upright when power seeks to diminish them.
Political Poems That Seek Closeness
These political poems do not merely aim to inform. They aim to touch, to remember, to bear witness. That is their special effect. Pacifico writes about women's rights in Iran, about flight, migration, war, religious fanaticism, and the need for freedom. At the same time, the volume does not stop at Iran. It leads further to escape routes, to the Mediterranean Sea, to the tragedy of Cutro, and to the questions that Europe must ask itself.
In an interview with the publisher, Gino Pacifico says a sentence that very accurately describes the inner motor of this book: "Credo che oggi molte persone cerchino non solo informazioni, ma anche un un modo per capire di come restare umani davanti alla violenza." This is precisely what Iran Rises is about: not just news, but the question of how to remain human in the face of violence.
Readers of this volume are probably not just looking for poetry in the strict sense. They are looking for a form of participation. They want to know that compassion still has value, that outrage can be justified, that freedom is not just a word. Therefore, the book particularly appeals to readers interested in Iran protests, human rights, flight, migration, and engaged literature.
From Iran to Europe
The strength of the volume lies in its scope. The poems about Iran form the political core, but alongside them are texts about labor migration, memory, origin, loss, and old age. Pacifico, himself an Italian migrant worker in Germany, writes from a life between languages and countries. This experience shapes his view of people who leave their homeland, of foreignness, return, and the painful longing for belonging.
Precisely for this reason, the poems about flight do not seem like an appended theme. They belong to the inner coherence of the book. Freedom here is never merely political. It is also biographical, existential, vulnerable. Those who want to learn more about the historical background of the collection can also find our article on Mahsa Amini, Cutro, and the Reality Behind the Poems.
Why This Book Is Important Now
Insorge l’Iran - Iran Rises is a bilingual collection of poems in Italian and German. This form alone is important. It makes the book a space between cultures, voices, and experiences. The original Italian language preserves the author's personal tone, while the German version opens it up to an audience seeking contemporary political poetry, bilingual poems, and literature about freedom and resistance.
This book is not a quiet retreat into poetry. It is an attempt to transform pain into conviction. It shows people who rise up because they no longer want to live in fear. And it reminds us that literature becomes particularly necessary where the world threatens to get used to violence. With Iran Rises, Gino Pacifico presents a volume that combines political poetry and human testimony.
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.
