Aziz Isa Elkun

(Lewen yala – لەۋەن يالا  Uyghur folk song)

Translated by Aziz Isa Elkun

Lewen yala.mp3 – by Rahimä Mahmut

Young children are playing
They use willow twigs as a hobby horse
The exiles weep for their homeland
Oh my sweetheart

Oh, how miserable I am!
Sad and weeping in the desert

We settled on the mountains
Because we could not stay in our gardens
This is the life we are living
Not surrendering to our enemy
Oh my sweetheart

Oh, how miserable I am!
Sad and weeping in the desert

I play my dutar all alone
My black eyes are crying
I am a wanderer in your town
No one hears my words
Oh my sweetheart

Oh, how miserable I am!
Sad and weeping in the desert

Oh, how miserable I am!
Sad and weeping in the desert

(Obituary)

by Aziz Isa Elkun

Poem dedicated to my beloved father who left us on 3rd November 2017 to rest in peace.

Poem read by Erol Özdemir

A bright star stopped shining in the garden of life
Angels read verses to send him to Heaven
Elkun, your only son who failed to carry your coffin
Now I say “my dear father” and write this obituary…

The naked white poplar trees you planted
you were not here when their leaves fell this autumn
when the grapes ripened on the vine
you were not here to eat them.

Sheep call you from their enclosure
your hard working hands are not there to feed them
even the roosters fall silent to mourn you at dawn
now you are not here and your house lacks its pillar.

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Translated by Aziz Isa Elkun

(Uyghur folk music & song, Meshrep*)

Are you playing in the garden
Are you singing like a nightingale
You have loved me before
And now are you going to abandon me?!

I don’t want to go there
I don’t want to play music
Where there is no meshrep!

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