Meeting with the poet Zaur Ustaj
Zaur Ustaj was born on January 08, 1975, in Baku of Azerbaijan Republic. He studied at Baku State University and then continued his education at Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev , International Institute of Invention & Business and Shamakhi Humanitas College. He is Chief Editor in The Yazarlar Magazine.
MY MOTHER
Calling it a carpet,
She laid the world beneath our feet…
Calling it a rug,
She hung the world before our eyes…
Our world remained a rug,
Until we could read the patterns…
My Mother conveyed my Father’s word to us in her own tongue…
Some understood, some will understand a hundred years later…
In both cases, there is wisdom in my Mother’s word,
My secret history rests
In every knot of my Mother,
In every pattern,
In every carpet,
In every rug…
*
She wove my Father’s word into saddlebags,
Filled them for us, her children,
So they might be provisions for the road…
Knot by knot, row by row, motif by motif
She laid before our eyes the world,
And taught us that it was made of thread and wool…
Some understood, some will understand a hundred years later…
In both cases, there is wisdom in my Mother’s word,
My secret history rests
In every knot of my Mother,
In every pattern,
In every carpet,
In every rug…
*
She lifted the skies into the warps,
Rolled the earth into skeins…
She tied the thread to our wrists,
So we would not lose the end of the yarn…
She wove a sign a thousand times into the loom,
So it would hang as an earring in our ears…
My Mother taught us the world in flavors upon flavors…
Symbol by symbol, mark by mark,
The world passed through my Mother’s weft…
From my Father’s buckle into my Mother’s pattern the world moved…
The world is always a rug for the new world!!!
THE RIBBON BEARS WITNESS…
War,
The ribbon bears witness…
Pandemic,
The ribbon bears witness…
*
You are born,
You are beaten,
You grow up,
The ribbon bears witness…
*
There is wedding,
There is feast,
There is bravery,
The ribbon bears witness…
*
You became a soldier,
Danger struck,
It brings the news,
The ribbon bears witness…
*
Just once,
It shows no loyalty,
Bears no pain,
It falls silent, the witness…
Ribbon – clothesline.
EARTH IS A PLACE OF PUNISHMENT!
O human, do not forget;
Remember the Apple,
Remember Adam,
Remember Eve!
*
O human, do not forget;
Remember the Call to Prayer,
Remember Fate,
Remember Punishment!
*
O human, do not forget;
The earth is a place of punishment!
The earth is a place of punishment!
The earth is a place of punishment!
Autor: Zaur USTAJ
Translated by: Leyla Mahirqızı,
Primary source: Meeting with the poet Zaur Ustaj
