Shemsettin Kuzeci
Kirkuk (Iraq)
WE
We are not the Sun,
we have come to see the Sun
Before We Die.
**
WHISPER
Mirrors don”t reflect rusted sunlight,
Souls don”t put up with all vah
anymore,
To love and to be loved
in this misery time is too rich
for our blood…
Hearts are as black as night
like a mare’s nest,
But dreams are colorful
like flowers…
Kirkuk, 1991
**
LOVE
If you want
make me cry,
If you wish
get me a laugh,
And cut down me
in my homeland
that I love.
Baghdat, 1990
**
Quatrains[1]
1.
If they draw a bead on world,
If they hit the right note on world,
My Kirkuk- my lovely homeland
I would not trade for the world.
2.
There”re many morning stars,
Our words are as strong as oxes,
If one doesn”t love homeland
He”ll not go
to the happy hunting grounds.
3.
We were fatally shot by fate,
What a sorrow when you are hurt!
We”re laughing for appearances only,
The only yearner is the heart.
Translated by Kamran Nazirli
[1] Quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete verse, consisting of four lines. It looks like bayati, that is one of the oldest forms of Kirkuk folk poetry. It consists of four lines, each of which has seven syllables. The rhyme scheme is aaba. Anonymous bayati have been collected as folk wisdom in editions such as people’s sayings and feelings. Bayati can also be strung together in sequence to form longer poems, and there are several bayati dastan, epics, in which all of the verses are bayati; one example is Arzu-Gambar.
