Nazim Hikmet: The Little Girl
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Nazim Hikmet: Sad kind of freedom, free to be an American air base
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Nazim Hikmet
The Little Girl (1955)
Translator unidentified
It is me knocking at your door
At how many doors I’ve been
But no one can see me
Since the dead are invisible
I died at Hiroshima
That was ten years ago
I am a girl of seven
Dead children do not grow
First my hair caught fire
Then my eyes burnt out
I became a handful of ashes
blown away by the wind
I don’t wish anything for myself
For a child who is burnt to cinders
Cannot even eat sweets
I’m knocking at your doors
Aunts and uncles, to get your signatures
So that never again children will burn
And so they can eat sweets
Kiz Çocugu
Kapıları çalan benim
Kapıları birer birer
Gözünüze görünemem
Göze görünmez ölüler
Hiroşima’da öleli
Oluyor bir on yıl kadar
Yedi yaşında bir kızım
Büyümez ölü çocuklar
Saçlarım tutuştu önce
Gözlerim yandı kavruldu
Bir avuç kül oluverdim
külüm havaya savruldu
Benim sizden kendim için hiçbir şey istediğim yok
Şeker bile yiyemez ki, kâat gibi yanan çocuk
Çalıyorum kapınızı…
Teyze, Amca, bir imza ver…
Çocuklar öldürülmesin
Şeker de yiyebilsinler
You who says “we cannot stop wars to come”
Think thrice and quicker
And sit down and think again. For time is short
You and I helpless little worms bystanders without dignity
It is your duty white man
Who else but you
You
You
You
Be a man!
Thank you for posting this. Many men and women, with education, can be taught to comprehend the horrors of war, and the damage or death to themselves going to war can bring. Yet there remain and will remain, certain men and women who are called to war. i don’t understand this but they are all around me and not necessarily bad people. Chimps fight troop wars with troops that only recently were their friends. We share over 98% of our DNA with chimps.