Bahtiyar Hidayet, Poem
Moderator 
Bahtiyar Hidayet, Azerbaijan
WHITE DARKNESSES
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 elderwomen
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.
THE COLD OF WAR’S FIRE
While putting up wire mesh around his land,
Out of poverty, he drove stakes into
the ground instead of fence posts
-
And used a few acacia trees as posts
Then he went to war
Returned with shrapnel in his body
-
Meanwhile, the wires had wrapped the acacias tightly
Later, they tore through the bark
And entered inside them
Now the acacias were eating the wire, squeezing it
-
The acacias resembled their owner
As if they too had shrapnel in their bodies
And were feeding on that shrapnel,
Meeting their iron needs this way,
without burdening their roots
-
He too was feeding on shrapnel
As a war veteran, on 80 AZN a month
-
One day, because of debt,
His gas was cut off
He chopped the acacias into firewood
-
He burned the acacia wood
The shrapnel in the acacias was melting from the heat
But the shrapnel in his body
Was making him feel even colder
