White Darkness – Poetry from Azerbaijan
They cut down
The planet’s white lungs—the forests.
Natural waters
Are dwindling away.
Bahtiyar Hidayet, a poet from Azerbaijan, shares his 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.
White Darkness
If the chastity
Of fair-faced beauties
Is sold for black money,
Then those fair faces
Are white darkness.
–
If the white hair and beards
Of elders and elder women
Become white flags before oppression,
Then those white hairs, white beards, white locks
Are white darkness.
–
All beauty
Is wrapped in white fog.
That white fog
Is white darkness.
All the darkest deeds
Are planned in white houses.
Those white houses
Are white darkness.
–
In this land,
The purest person
Is a dead one wrapped
In a white shroud.
That white shroud
Is white darkness.
They say
White days are coming.
Those white days
Are white darkness.
–
They cut down
The planet’s white lungs—the forests.
Natural waters
Are dwindling away.
Yet water filled
The lungs of the poor;
Water filled
Their eyes as well.
The planet’s white lungs, too,
Are a white darkness.
–
Oh, you oppressors,
At least leave the poor
Some cheap wood for their coffins.
For these white darknesses
Will never
Come into the light.
Son misralar xüsusilə təsirlidir:
For these white darknesses
Will never
Come into the light.
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