Selected Poems of Nâzým Hikmet



ON DEATH AGAIN

My spouse,
           my soul and essence
                              Hatiché Pirayendé,
I’m thinking about death,
it means arteriosclerosis
                        begins in me... -
One day
          as it snows,
or
       one night,
or
      in the heat of one noon
which of us first,
how
      and where we shall die?
How
      and what will be
the last sound or the colour
       the one dying hears or sees,
the first movement of the one left behind,
                               the first words
                               the first meal?
Maybe we shall die far apart.
The news
        will come in screams,
or they will just allude,
and leave alone
         the one left behind...
And the one left behind
        will be lost in the crowd.
It means, master, it is life...
And all these possibilities
                          in what year of the 1900’s
                                which month
                                which day
                                what hour
My spouse,
          my soul and essence
                        Hatiché Pirayendé,
I’m thinking about death,
about our life passing.
I’m sad
           at ease
                   and haughty.
Which of us first,
how
and wherever we die,
you and I
          loved each other
and the greatest cause of human beings
                                             – we faugt for it –
we can say
              “We lived.”
                                                                                    tr. by Fuat Engin