Beneath the earth is more beautiful—
No electricity bill, no gas bill, no loan debt…
Bahtiyar Hidayet, a poet from Azerbaijan, shares his short poem
Bahtiyar Hidayet, born in 1974 in the Gazakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, graduated from university in 1995 and has been working as a history teacher since 1998. Wrote poetry since high school and has 4 poetry books published in Azerbaijan.
In Memory of My Brother
Your final moments happened before my eyes.
You were breathing deeply,
So deeply that
It was as if you were breathing in place of the years you would never live.
Your eyes were fixed on one point.
You were not blinking,
As if you wanted to see the world in place of the years you would never live.
You had no strength to rise from the bed,
As if you were sleeping for all the years you would never sleep again.
I washed your body myself, brother.
As I washed you, I cleansed myself in your place.
From now on, I will live more purely, like you.
For your gravestone,
Your wedding photograph became the most suitable picture.
Your wedding photograph looks out from the gravestone
For all the weddings you would never again be able to attend.
While there are so many who should die,
Tell me, in whose place did you die, my brother?
Do not long for us, my brother,
My grandmother is beside you there.
My father is beside you.
My mother is preparing to come beside you too.
Beneath the earth is more beautiful—
No electricity bill, no gas bill, no loan debt…
The pension capital you gathered until today
Will belong to your children.
It will keep your children alive.
We too will help your children.
We too will live a little in your place.
And the humanity capital you gathered until today
Will keep your memory alive.
And this poem too will keep your memory alive.
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