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  • Midday
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Midday

Ak Welsapar

Midday, just look around:
the heat raises the sand to a boil.
Life is nothing more than a myth
when summer comes to this land.

A camel on the ground, groaning,
doesn’t help against the heat.
What does it ask and to whom,
its neck bent into a question mark?

The day at its peak. The sun blind.
Mirages draw me in only to disappoint.
In Asia, a tornado is born
and wails past me on its way to Africa.

The forest of desert trees lies quiet;
strives to survive.
On a branch, a small body jumps around,
a sparrow burned black by the sun.

The ground is cracked and jagged;
the desert air melts away.
The wonderful music of the heat
is brief, and piercing.

I bear a worry in my heart
not everyone bears.
My homeland follows me everywhere.
I love my people. I can’t help it.


Ak Welsapar

from Language for a New Century; Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar (London: W. W. Norton & Co, 2008)

translated by Eric Welsapar and Idra Novey

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and translators.

Tags:

camels desert heat identity landscape nationalism summer Turkmenistan

About this poem

This poem, representing Turkmenistan, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Ak Welsapar

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