23.01.2025 / Perspectives

Author: Giorgia Zazzeroni, M.A. Candidate

Of suffering, I know nothing.
I do not know the depth of pain.
I cannot define its edges, not even blurred,
the pain that chains my mind, that stifles its power.
I know of other lives, drained, abused, silenced, damned, destroyed, repressed.
Lives discarded, they pour down upon me.
Human the consciences, bestial the punishments.
They spoke once and then never again, forever.
But I write, laugh, drink, and know nothing of pain.
They wanted to be free.
But I sing, dance, discover, and know nothing of suffering.
They wanted to live.
And I live.

I will buy an old house in the alleys of a bleeding street.
I will let its walls, outside, scream forever.
I will never mend its cracks.
I will fill it with colors, people, books, journeys, and consciences.
I will never allow silence, nor grant a word.
I will leave the windows open and never lock them,
I will shut the doors.
For those who need it and for those who fear it.
It will be the house of redemption.
It will be the place where the memory of repression becomes indelible.

But I will leave the chains.
I will polish them every day.
Because now they no longer constrain,
no longer silence,
now,
they preserve.

Departments: FRI Media Lab; Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program; Policy Analysis and Outreach Department; Research Department; Center on Global Affairs and Post Development.

Regions: Global, Europe, Romania.

Themes: Cities; Civic Engagement; Civil Society; Communism and Totalitarianism; Democracy and Democratization; European Union; Freedom of Expression; Human Rights; Media and Journalism; Social Inequalities.