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

Aziz Isa Elkun

Before ….
Before you feel endless homesickness
Before you feel the life is meaningless
Before your hair becomes all white
Before your grandchildren marry
Before you learn what’s wrong and what’s right
Before your teeth fall out
Before you have an extra leg
Before you travel with an electric chair
Before …

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by Nurmemet Yasin (Orkishi)

translated by Aziz Isa Elkun

Where are you our heroic men?
Let us go to the desert,
The brave hunter finds freedom there,
It flows in his spirit and his blood.

The reeds sing a desert song,
Horses neigh on the horizon.
The heroic people who once lived by the sword,
Now lie quiet beneath the earth.

The floating moon becomes a beautiful girl,
Telling a story in the blue* sky,
Oh the reed bed fiercely burns,
And with it the hopes of a whole nation.

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