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Poetry

Sudden Sorrow

By Hama Jaza
Translated from Kurdish by Hakar Dlshad

Oh, how tired, how exhausted I am from the day’s sorrows
I am so weary of my body with the sudden sorrows of the night

There is not a night I don’t dream of punishments and executions
There is not a day I don’t catch sorrow from the hands of my enemies

Sorrow becomes my guest, in the square frame of my room
So now, I bemoan my life and my existence

Yet in this strange country, they won’t let me settle
There will be a day I will be free from this lucklessness

I have decided not to listen to any news
Every wire that transfers news to my home, I will cut

© Hama Jaza. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2014 by Hakar Dlshad. All rights reserved.

English

Oh, how tired, how exhausted I am from the day’s sorrows
I am so weary of my body with the sudden sorrows of the night

There is not a night I don’t dream of punishments and executions
There is not a day I don’t catch sorrow from the hands of my enemies

Sorrow becomes my guest, in the square frame of my room
So now, I bemoan my life and my existence

Yet in this strange country, they won’t let me settle
There will be a day I will be free from this lucklessness

I have decided not to listen to any news
Every wire that transfers news to my home, I will cut

© Hama Jaza. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2014 by Hakar Dlshad. All rights reserved.

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