Is One Equal to One?

 The teacher shouted at the board,

His face was rosy with rage

And his hands were hidden under a cover of dust

But at the end of the class, students were sharing candies among themselves

And one was flipping through a magazine

While the teacher was trying to attract their attention with passion

And show algebraic equations to show equality

With a legible line on a black board

He wrote the equation as follows:

"One is equal to one"

One of the students stood up,

One must always stand up ...

He spoke slowly:

Draw is a gross mistake!

The students’ eyes suddenly stared to one side

The teacher was left speechless

And he asked if a human being, was the unit of one,

Was it equal to one again?

 It was a difficult question followed by silence!

The angry teacher shouted:

Yes, it was equal.

And the student said with a grin:

If a human being was the unit of one,

The one with force and gold was high

The one with a kind heart and a hand without gold was low?

Wasn’t he?

If a human being, was the unit of one,

One with silver, white face was high,

Wasn’t he?

One with black face was down?

Wasn’t he?

If a human being, was the unit of one,

This draw was upside down!

Now I ask:

If one was equal to one,

Where the wealth of the riches was coming from?

Or who would make the China walls?

If one was equal to one,

Who would bend under the burden of poverty?

If one was equal to one,

Who would keep the freedom loving people in cages?

The teacher moaned:

Write in your booklets:

One is not equal to one ...

 This was of the poem written by Khosrow Glosorkhi and translated by M. Parvin.

Golsorkhi was a journalist, poet, and had socialist beliefs.  

 He was borne in 22 January 1944, in Rasht and was executed in 18 February 1974, in Tehran.