Literature and Poetry
Angina Pectoris |
No Sappho, Love's Condition is Class Warfare |
No Sappho, Love's Condition is Class Warfare |
The First of May |
Naseem Hikmet
Angina Pectoris
Naseem Hikmet is a Turkish poet and playwright who was born in Salonika 1902-1963. He was imprisoned due to his communist activity. When he was released from prison he left Turkey and settled in Eastern Europe. His lyrical and patriotic poetry was influenced by Vladimir Mayakovsky with a folk style and use of free rhyming. He was awarded the Stalin Prize for Peace in 1950.
If only half of my heart is here. Doctor
The other half is in China
With the army that goes down to the Yellow River
And every morning, Doctor
Every single day at dawn
My heart is shot in Greece
And when the prisoners are deeply asleep
And the last of the steps echo in the clinic
My heart goes, Doctor
My heart goes to the old hut in Istanbul
And this too: it’s been ten years Doctor
That I have nothing to offer my tortured people
Nothing apart from an apple
A red apple. My heart.
I look at night through the railings
And although these walls are burdening my chest
My heart beats-beats with the distance of the stars
And those are the things Doctor
And not the calcification of the arteries, nicotine or imprisonment
That have caused my angina pectoris