A Sunday Poem

This week’s poem is by Ali Karim (Əli Kərim) called Stone (Daş):

Stone

Half-naked,
Primitive man
Cast a stone at his foe,
Shed blood.
But the stone
Didn’t fall to the ground,
It kept flying,
From horizon to horizon.
Don’t say that the stone disappeared.
That stone transformed into an arrow,
And then a sword,
A bullet,
A missile.
It did not stop as we thought.
It transformed into an atom.
Piercing the summit
And wishes
And the ocean,
It sped away…
Nor has that very stone
Stopped even now,
It still shoots through the air, but where?
It becomes neutron,
Electron-
A lot of this, a lot of that.
Transforming into fire.
Death.
Poison.
You, my contemporary,
You, brother of Truth,
Tell me, can’t that stone be stopped,
That the half-naked,
Half-savage,
Primitive man
Cast so long ago?

For the Azeri, read below…

Daş

Yarıçılpaq,
Qədim insan
Düşməninə bir daş atdı,
Qana batdı.
Daş düşmədi
Amma yerə,
Uçub getdi
Üfüqlərdən üfüqlərə.
Deməyin ki, daş yox oldu,
Daş çevrilib bir ox oldu.
Oldu qılınc,
güllə,
mərmi.
Dayanmadı fikri kimi.
Atom oldu.
Meredianı qırıq-qırıq,
Arzuları zərrə-zərrə,
Okeanı para-para
Edib keçdi…
Həmin o daş
Indi yenə dayanmayır,
uçur hara?
O, neytron,
elektron—
Dönüb
nələr,
nələr olur.
Alov olur,
ölüm olur,
zəhər olur.
Ey həməsrim,
Həqiqətin qan qardaşı,
Dayandırmaq olmazmı, de,
Yarıçılpaq,
yarıvəhşi,
Qədim insan
atan daşı?!

You can get more poems by Ali Karim at Azeri.org.

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