Lament

Your name remains in this earth
in between the seeds,
in the green of the fields
and the yellow wheat,

Even after many years,
it rushes through the streams
it shimmers in the wounds
of bereaved friends.

 

It climbs the hill
in its day, drawing
poems from the stars,
And washes down our blood
in the clearest waters,

becomes a mother,
a brother, a fire on the plains,
which some days scatters life
and others death.

 

Tomorrow your name

will be our true banner,

which we fly on the spring wind
and in the dark eyes of young women.
 

Ağıt by Ülkü Tamer

Translated June 2, 2020

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