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NAZIM HIKMET’S LETTER IN REPLY
My only one,
of course your hair is red,
and your eyes
sometimes green
sometimes honey coloured.
You have seen that at last!
Everybody could see it.
But I’m the first human to see that they are so
because I am the one
who first wrote about it.
And in this world
my only words not told before me
are these.
You know,
I’ve given my life
for the most beautiful
the most predestined
the most should be thing.
But there are so many people
– in uncountable numbers –
who struggled for the same cause
– and perhaps with a greater perseverance –
before me.
Of course your hair is red,
and your eyes
sometimes green
sometimes honey coloured.
And there is one thing more which you don’t no about it,
your hands are wonderful.
You know :
people carry the marks of their classes
in their palms.
Realities on this matter,
the role of human hand in social development for instance
is estimated before me.
But the beauty of your hands
I’ve seen it first
because I’ve written about it first.
Of course your hair is red,
and your eyes
sometimes green
sometimes honey coloured.
And your hands,
learn it too,
are wonderful.
26 October 1940
tr. by Fuat Engin