Deep Pockets & 'Death to America'

Lately I've taken to wearing cargo pants because they have deep pockets, and a lot of them. I also have a pair of shorts that I rarely wear because they have shallow pockets. When I do wear them, I'm always worried about stuff falling out. When I wear the cargo pants, my mind is at ease on that score.

There is also another well known interpretation of the phrase“deep sockets,” which is why you can make sense of my observation that Elon Musk has deep pockets, even when he's standing naked. A word-for-word translation of that observation, say into Persian, would leave many readers confused.

Clay Claiborne being greeted by children in China 48 years before Trump

Another example of something being lost in translation, and I swear, this is a true story: Back in 1978, I led a tour of China. In addition to our regular tour guides, we would get three students from the foreign language institute in each city we visited, and they were keen to pickup the latest American slang. In a quieter moment, one asked me, in all seriousness: We're hearing about gay oppression, and the struggle for gay right. We've heard about the many forms of capitalist oppression in the United States, but do they actually oppress people for being happy? 

Explaining that one took some time.

The point is: languages can be tricky. A literal translation isn't always an accurate translation.

Which brings us to the often heard justification for treating Iran as some special kind of evil, or special kind of threat: They've been chanting“Death to America, Death to Israel” for 47 years. If they were to get the bomb, there can be no doubt that they would use it right away.

“Death to America” in Persian is مرگ بر آمریکا (pronounced Marg bar Amrika).

From a Quora post by Amir Davis, who seems to know his way around a number of languages:

In Persian (which is how you say “Farsi” in English, otherwise it’s like calling Spanish by its endonym “Español”) the phrase “Marg bar X” means “Death to X”.

This can be a literal wish for someone’s death e.g. “Marg bar Shah” in ’79 or “Marg bar Khamenei” in ‘18.

A statement of displeasure or dissatisfaction, such as heard in the recent protests, against ephemeral sociopolitical issues such as “Marg bar Fessad” (Death to Corruption).

A fervent wish for change, such as Iranians have been saying for a century whilst stuck in rush hour (“Marg bar Traffic”), or as I heard in a movie theatre when I was a kid before the revolution when a particularly racy scene was cut from a movie, and a guy yelled out “Marg bar Sansoorchi” (Death to the Censor) to the audience’s cheering and delight.

A political statement of opposition, such as “Marg bar Amrika”, or more recently, “Marg bar Russiyeh” when the Russian UN envoy was seen as enabling the regime during the Security Council debate on the protests demanded by the US, and even “Marg bar Jomhouri Eslami” (Death to the Islamic Republic) during these same protests.

Source: Qantara

He then goes on to talk about how, as a kid, he was forced to yell “Marg bar Amrika” before homeroom in school; then he adds this note:

Note: Persian doesn’t contain the phrase “Down with X”. “Death to X” is the linguistic equivalent, unless a new term has been invented in the years since I left. 

It should also be noted that official Iranian government publications translate the phrase to “Down with America,” as do the signs carried by protester. So, the decision to present us with the unambious translation "Death to America" as a main justification for them killing Iranians is obscene in the extreme.

Clay Claiborne

11 June, 2026

PS: I can get behind the phrase “Marg bar X” provided the X is taken literally, not as a variable. Now, how do you say "Bring back Twitter" in Persian?