A Sunday Poem

Today’s poem is from Əli Kərim, a writer from Azerbaijan who died very young in the mid-20th century.  From his Azerbaijan International page:

Ali Pasha oghlu Karimov was born March 22, 1931, in the Goychay region of Azerbaijan. He died June 30, 1969 in Baku.

He graduated from the Literature Institute named after Maxim Gorky (1955). He eventually headed the Poetry Department of Azerbaijan magazine. He received an award for his epic entitled “First Symphony” (Ilk Simfoniya) at the Sixth Festival of World Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957.

Enjoy here his poem, I Locked the Door:

I Locked the Door

Locking the door from inside
Writing poems
The door is often knocked upon
Interrupting my stream of thought.
Again, it was my sons, nobody else.
They ignored all the other open doors,
But they wanted to come in here.
It was as if they were spying on me.
Suddenly, the thought comes to my mind
Thank God, they’re not willing
To go through open doors.
My sons-Orkhan! Pasha! Azar!
If you see that I haven’t open the door,
Go ahead and break down the closed door.

And here is the Azerbaijani original…

Qapını Bağladım

Qapını daldan bağlayıb
Şer yazıram.
Misralar hasarının
arxasında,
Fikirlər arasında,
Qapı tez-tez döyülür.
Yenə bu oğlanlarımdan başqa,
heç kim deyildir.
Açıq otaqlar orda qalıb,
onlar bura girmək
istəyirlər,
Sanki məni izləyirlər,
Birdən gəlir başıma
Belə bir fikir:
Yaxşı ki, meylləri
açıq qapıya deyildir.
Mən açmasam hirslənib bir qədər,
Sındırın bağlı qapını,
Oğlanlarım—
Orxan!
Paşa!
Azər!

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