Aziz Isa Elkun

Aziz Isa Elkun, Poet & Writer
Researcher at SOAS, University of London

Published by Brussels Morning Newspaper 26 June 2024 11:27 Am

The Uyghurs love writing and reading poems; it is an essential part of Uyghur cultural expression and plays a vital role in the continuation of creativity and development of the Uyghur language, literature, and culture.
 
Since 2016, over three million Uyghurs and other Turkic people in the Uyghur homeland in China have been collectively persecuted and sent to the notorious Chinese internment camps in the Uyghur Region. Soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, with the political and military support of the Soviet Union, the so-called Chinese Liberation Army illegally occupied the Uyghur homeland of East Turkistan, also known as Uyghuristan. In 1955, it announced the founding of the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” As a Uyghur living in exile, and a poet and advocator for freedom of speech and writing, my conscience forbids me from calling our Uyghur homeland, “Xinjiang”, which means “New Territories” in the Chinese language. In spite of ongoing persecution under Chinese rule, Uyghur writers sustained their rich cultural legacy, and Uyghur poetry played a significant role in keeping Uyghur language and literature alive, and expressing criticism of the oppressive Chinese regime.

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Edited by Aziz Isa Elkun
Translated by Aziz Isa Elkun and others
Published: 26/10/2023
EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY POCKET POETS
Penguin Random House

An unprecedented collection of poems spanning the rich two-thousand-year cultural legacy of the Uyghur people of Central Asia. EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY POCKET POETS.

The Uyghurs have a long and glorious history of poetry, dating from the oral epics of the second century BCE through the elegant love poetry of the medieval period and up to the present moment -and much of it has never before been translated into English. Uyghur poetry reflects the magnificent natural landscapes at the heart of the Silk Road region, with its endless steppes, soaring mountain ranges, and vast deserts, as well as its turbulent history. Turkic, Sufi, and Persian influences have shaped the poetic tradition over the centuries, and more recently the modernism of the twentieth century left its mark as well. In the face of the systematic persecution of the Uyghurs in China today, which has driven many of their poets into exile, including the editor and translator of this volume, Aziz Isa Elkun, who lives in London. Uyghur Poems is not only a remarkable one-volume tour of an ancient and vibrant poetic tradition but also a vital witness to a threatened culture.

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Published by Bitter Winter Magazine on 21 June /2024

For an exiled poet, an apricot tree in London is a way of remembering his father and his youth in East Turkestan (China. Xinjiang).

by Aziz Isa Elkun
Edited by Ruth Ingram

Aziz Isa Elkun, UK-based exiled Uyghur poet in his London garden with a three year old apricot tree he has nurtured from a sapling to remind him of home.

One of my strongest childhood memories was following my father around our family orchard and closely watching him as he tended the trees. I helped him plant apricots from the age of six or seven. Our family owned a large tract of land in Xinjiang (also known as East Turkestan) north of the Tarim River, (south of Shayar County), the principal water source of the Tarim Basin that sweeps from the Karakoram Mountains in the West across the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert to Lop Nur in the East.

My father had set his heart on growing a family orchard. I remember there being no water for the small apricot saplings after we planted them and I would follow my father, carrying a little bucket to bring water from the lake in the village to help the apricot and other trees grow.

I learned how to plant, graft, and look after fruit trees. We had one of the largest and most unique orchards in our neighbourhood. Everyone admired my father’s dedication as he struggled to grow fruit trees in the dry desert climate. He collected fruit trees for our garden from far and wide; even as far as Kucha, 65 kilometers to the north, and brought them home to grow. We had fig, pomegranate, apricot, pear, apple, peach, and hundred-meter-long vine trellises.

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گۈلۈم كەلمەس

Uyghur Folk Song
Translated by Aziz Isa Elkun

Unlike a bonfire, I have been burning for an age
I miss my flower who has not returned
Separation has torn apart my life
I miss my flower who has not returned.

گۈلخان ئەمەس، كۆيدۇم ئۇزاق,
سېغىنغاندا گۈلۈم كەلمەس.
دەردى ئۆتتى جۇدالىقنىڭ،
سېغىنغاندا گۈلۈم كەلمەس.

I want to set off on the road searching for my lover
I want to know her whereabouts
I want to mourn with my tears
I miss my flower who has not returned.

يارنى ئىزدەپ چىقاي دەيمەن،
بار- يوقىنى ئۇقاي دەيمەن.
يىغلاپ ماتەم تۇتاي دەيمەن …
سېغىنغاندا گۈلۈم كەلمەس.

I asked the stars
I stopped the travellers
I lit candles at the holy shrines
I miss my flower who has not returned.

يۇلتۇزلاردىن سوراپ باقتىم،
كارۋانلارنى بۇراب باقتىم،
مازارلارغا چىراغ ياقتىم،
سېغىنغاندا گۈلۈم كەلمەس.