Literature

A Talk with the Firewood

Poetry from Azerbaijan

nasiraijaz August 21, 2025

0 36 5 minutes read

The same fire called Love

Burned us both.

My sorrow-sister – you, firewood.

Prof. Rasmiyya Sabir, an eminent poetess from Azerbaijan, shares her poetry

Prof. Rasmiyya Sabir (PhD.) has authored nine books published in Azerbaijan, Turkey Uzbekistan and Iraq. She is one of the members of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan and Chuvashistan. At the same time, she is a co-founder of the Union of the World Young Turkish Writers. More than 130 poems have been composed by the composers. Her first CD and cassette consisting of the music of her poems was recorded in 2002. Her poems have been translated into many foreign languages (Turkish, Russian, English, Georgian, and Persian) and published in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Sweden, Germany, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and etc. She has been prized many times. The first prize was given to her in 2000 year in the competition devoting to Fuzuli. She has been chosen “The person of the literature of the year” by the International Organizations called KIBATEK and VEKTOR. She has translated Modern Azerbaijan poems into Turkey Turkish, modern Kazakh and Uzbek poems into Azerbaijani language. She has represented in different poem festivals in Azerbaijan. She has gained the benefit of the President Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic.

A TALK WITH THE FIREWOOD

The same fire called Love

Burned us both.

My sorrow-sister – you, firewood.

You blazed like a tree,

I burned like a man.

Our smoke became one spirit,

(Somewhere, fire made peace with water)

From you – a fist of ash remained,

From me – a fist of earth.

Tell me…

Which of us burned more beautifully,

Firewood?

***

YOU AND I

I sought the truth-

But you came to me as a gentle lie.

I sought the dawn of hope-

But you came as a trembling “perhaps.”

I sought the joy that sings-

But you came as a quiet consolation.

I sought forever-

But you came as a fleeting lifetime.

And on this wide earth,

I searched for the self

I had once lost in the wind…

And it was you

Who stood before me!

***

WOMAN

I know you, woman.

The sorrow of millennia

Etched upon your face

Feels familiar to my soul.

No matter what you do,

Fate cannot touch

The depth of your faith.

I know you, woman.

The burdens you carry,

Like silent trash bags,

Press heavy upon your heart.

Even the boldest grief

Comes to rest quietly within you.

I know you, woman.

What more does fate seek from you?

Your destiny, longer than your reach,

Shies away, slipping past unnoticed.

I know you, woman.

The world is too small for your spirit.

Vivid spring blossoms

Wither in your autumn-touched hands.

I know you, woman.

Yet… somehow, I have forgotten—

What was your name again?

***

SEASONS

I asked you from the wind.

It blew madly.

It cut my hope.

I asked you from the Sun.

It burnt with angry.

As if the time stopped.

I asked you from the rain.

It cried bitterly,

It closed my tongue and mouth.

I asked you from the snow.

It snowed, snowed my hair…

Now your absence is a mountain.

I was killed by the pain.

***

SHADOW

Nothing dies.

Everything changes its shape.

A human has been changing the shape

Since the birth.

The death of the human

Is also the changing of the shape!

At first, it begins

From the shortening of the shadow.

In the second year of the University,

I knew the death of the professor

From the shortening of his shadow.

The teaching philosophy

Had changed of its shape.

Philosophy of Corruption

Philosophy of Countryman

Wasn’t so adequacy with the

Philosophy of Hegel,

Kant, Freud.

As the height of the professor with his shadow…

Nothing dies.

Everything changes its shape…

***

WE PARTED WITH YOU

We parted each other.

Neither the world broke apart,

Nor the time moved.

We parted each other.

Neither the lighting,

Nor the storm happened.

We parted each other.

Neither the stones cried

On the ground,

Nor the clouds on the sky.

We parted each other.

One drop tear

Put a stop

To our love.

We parted each other.

Simply

It was dissatisfied

Each of us…

***

I WANTED TO FORGET YOU

I wanted to forget you…

I remembered the spring.

I remembered the time

When our love growing…

I wanted to forget you…

I remembered the summer broiling.

I remembered the warmth

Of the first meeting.

I wanted to forget you…

I remembered the autumn yellowing.

Which we left each other

I remembered that evening

I wanted to forget you…

I remembered the cold winter evening.

I remembered the snow

Which to my hairs snowing?

Tell me,

How to find

The fifth season?

Tell me,

How to make out you

From my mind.

***

REBELLION

…my hands still clutch yesterday,

My body drifts through today,

My feet are already stepping into tomorrow.

And my soul—

Caught between earth and sky—

Breaks into a storm,

Defying

Every separation.

***

BETWEEN YOU AND ME

Between you and me

Lies a quiet stretch of space—

Close enough to touch in love,

Far enough to ache in longing.

Between you and me

Breathes a fragile silence—

A word away from closeness,

A lifetime away from speech.

Between you and me

Drifts the haze of dreams—

Near as the shimmer of sleep,

Distant as the weight of waking.

Between you and me

Pulses the thread of life—

As near as the breath in our lungs,

As far as the hush of death.

Between you and me

Time will keep moving on…

And in the end,

Only three quiet dots will stand

Where our story pauses.

***

THE SUN