Turkish poetry, Arabic translation, Nâzım Hikmet

A great poem from Turkish Posted by aziza on Jun 9, 2010 in Culture

A couple of years ago, I came across a lovely poem in Arabic, but it was written originally in Turkish, by a famous Turkish poet called Nâzım Hikmet who was also a playwright and a novelist. He was born on January 15, 1902 to a rich Turkish family, but he was imprisoned for his communist views and died in exile in Russia on June 3, 1963. He was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated into more than fifty languages. I absolutely loved this poem which I read in Arabic. I hope you like it too. I translated it into English.

لا تحيا على الأرض

كمستأجر بيت

أو زائر ريف وسط الخضرة

ولتحيا على الأرض

كما لو كان العالم بيت أبيك

ثق في الحب وفي الأرض وفي البحر

ولتمنح ثقتك قبل الأشياء الأخرى للإنسان

امنح حبك للسحب وللآلة والكتب

ولتمنح حبك قبل الأشياء الأخرى للإنسان

ولتستشعر اكتئابة الغصن الجاف

والكوكب الخامد

والحيوان المقعد

ولتستشعر أولاً اكتئابة الإنسان

لتحمل لك الفرحة

كل طيبات الأرض

ليحمل لك الفرحة

الظل والضوء

لتحمل لك الفرحة

الفصول الأربعة

ولكن فليحمل لك الإنسان

أول فرحة

ناظم حكمت
من قصيدة “لعلها آخر رسالة إلى ولدي محمد”
من ديوان “أغنيات المنفى”
ترجمة محمد البخاري

Do not live on Earth

Like a house tenant

Or visitor to the countryside

Do live on Earth

As if the world was your father’s house

Trust in love, land and sea

But trust Man before other things

Give your love to clouds, machines and books

But love Man more than other things

Do feel the gloom of a dry branch

And a lifeless planet

And a lame animal

But feel the gloom of Man first of all

Let all the goods of earth

Bring you joy

Let shadow and light

Bring you joy

Let the four seasons

Bring you joy

But let Man bring you

The utmost joy

Below is the translation of one of him poem into Arabic accompanied by a song. I do not know Turkish, so I have no way to confirm whether the words and the song match or not, but the poem is very nice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMODl0_xo78

Sources: http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B8%D9%85_%D8%AD%D9%83%D9%85%D8%AA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A2z%C4%B1m_Hikmet

http://hawadeetarabic.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post.html