No one’s matter

a play by Saif Diaan

Persian-Hebrew translation by Samuel Thrope.

Directed by Li Lorian

“When I say ‘this was our destiny,’ I am not aiming to glorify him; he was no more important than others.  He was trapped in history.  He could never have been more clever than his life.  We are all trapped in history.  We can not be better than the time in which we live.  Perhaps a little bit better.  But ignorance became the common currency of our time.  In any case, the old man could not overcome history.  And it appears that history will never be under the old man’s control.

“Who’s fault was it?” I’m tired of the question.  No one was less a traitor than anyone else.  A few were simply stupider than others.  That’s all.  After it was all over, you could point out a few mistakes and say: it could have been different.  But when it happened, I’m saying, it could not have been different.  I mean, it happened.  It already happened.  History is not the past.  I had to reach quite an age before I understood that.  I wasted a lot of time before I understood.  History is not the past; history is made afterwards.  Nor is it the future.  Nor the present.  The truth is, it is not part of the grammatical tenses.  It is an independent time.  History is one that comes ‘after the past,’ and before the present.  But in any case, it comes ‘after the past.’  As I said: it is made afterwards.”