I have started composing my weekly post a few days back. It was going to be on matters regarding the mechanics of editing as the promise of this site. What work of writing do you have as a draft at the moment? was to be a question I wanted to raise with you. Then, I was going to solicit a brief draft text from anyone who would be willing to share here their initial writing on any subject / theme / focus so that it would be in the public eye (including yours) to work with in terms of adjustments / modifications / rephrasing / etc. Today, however, my heart is somewhere else as is my mind.
Yesterday morning, I came across a blood-freezing news, traveling to my soul from Saudi Arabia – in the form of a horrific act of barbarism to which a 6-years old beautiful boy was subjected. (The related reading will find you, if interested, on the bottom of this page.) The anguish I felt was so overwhelming that I had to write. And I have. It turned into a poem draft in my native tongue. I am sharing it with you in this morning hour, together with its translation into English.
My quest is simple: Please go through my text in whichever language is familiar to you, bearing in mind that this draft has been created under high emotions of lament, with my spirit having met a violent turbulence of suffering. Once you do, indulge me with your input as to the outcome of this poetic draft. Harsh criticisms will be welcomed in the same passionate embrace as their mild counterparts. Thank you for listening.
nasıl kıydılar sana, masum bebek
Şii misin, Sünni misin ne demek
kırık camla boynunu bıçaklamış
iki ayaklı o mahlûk defalarca
o her yanı öpülesi güzel başını
koparmış kim bilir ne kadar süren
yürek kaldırmayan işkencenden sonra
bir de çaresizliğinin vahşeti içinde
akıl almaz bir melek katliamı
yaşayan anneciğinin çığlıkları altında
lânet olsun senin din anlayışına, ey yetişkin mahluk
lanet olsun senin gibi iki ayaklı hayvanlara
lanet olsun taksi kullanabilen
sürüngenden beter
hiç yaşamamış olsa
tibbi bir deneye yararı olabilecek
o ruhtan yoksun lanet olası varlığına
(c) hülya n. yılmaz, 2.11.2019
Bugün Suudi Arabistanda bir taksi şoförü tarafından katledilen 6 yaşındaki minik meleğin anısına
In honor of Zakariya al-Jaber, 6 years old, who was brutally murdered in Saudi Arabia for being a Shiite Muslim. My anguish at this news was so overwhelming that I only could write a few words in my native tongue. May such atrocities never come on to the path of another little angel. Anywhere. In the notoriously inhumane Saudi Arabia, in particular.
how did they have the heart to do this to you, oh you innocent baby
why on earth did it matter whether you were a Sunni or a Shii’te
that two-legged creature is said to have butchered you
stabbing you repeatedly with a shard on your neck
until he managed to behead you following an unknown period of time
throughout which you were left to suffer unbearable pains
under the vain screams of helplessness of your mother’s anguish
may curses be upon your way to religious beliefs, you grown up creature
may curses be upon those you-alike animals
may curses be upon your capacity to drive a cab
may curses be upon you, you lower-than-a-reptile being
which, had it not lived, might have been some service
to the medicinal research in some far-stretched way
may curses be upon your being that is void of a soul
