Contemporary Azerbaijani Poetry Sona Valiyeva

Contemporary Azerbaijani Poetry

Sona Valiyeva
Azerbaijan

Love of a Sparrow for the Native Nest


I"m sitting
in the shade of a pomegranatе,
and sparrows"re holed up
in the high forest canopy.
They are building nest on branches
making noise.

Father-sparrow echoes stubbornly -
Chick-chirick;
That"s low,
here is high...
That won"t do, ow-ow-ow!
Start to rebuild!
If so, then entrance looks at north!
branches prevent us,

And if so, then
the wind will blow
and kids will get cold.
Let"s carry the door...
"No", just nags Mother-sparrow,
"Like this, the whole nest
will be out in the open.
For worse.
It is not a summer cabin,
it"s not a swallow"s nest.
Did you think about autumn fall
or snowy winter?"

Sparrows and their own kind
are gathering around.
They love their nests,
they love their families,
they respect the elders.
They don"t listen to yellers.
A hundred times measure,
once cut away...
It"s just cured by another one...
They build home hardly
of clay and mud and brushwood
Sprint by sprint, pinch by pinch
they are building nest...
Sparrows build home,
sparrows just keep riding on that.
Sometimes
there is a battle going on
near the nest
They"re fighting for their life
over there,
Chick-chirick,
It is our nest,
we"'ve built it.
Chick-chirick,
We"ll die before we"ll give it!
And the chirping speaks
on fighting for home,
for the native hearth!
Curse you, enemy!
They will pray before
and after battle.

Tiny bird is waging a war
for her native nest -
If it will be got,
if the enemy will get
her homeland, her tree.
On the one hand-rains, floods,
on the other hand-earthquake,
on the third-volcano.
Chick-chirick, we"re crying,
little was grief, one more to boot.
Faults and offenses are ours,
Oh, God, it seems we are like people,
Birds don"t want to look like people,
A man not so dedicated and loyal to God
as a bird.
He is a face changer.
(The bird is looking to the heavens
while drinking water)
The birds are fighting
for the nest,
for the branches.
But so many men,
they risk so little.
We weren"t able to fight like sparrows,
We couldn"t defend our hearth,
We haven"t done it.
My Lord,
my almighty God!
We"re paying the price for
not being killed in battles for homeland.
We weren"t a stone wall.
And we lost ourselves.
Now each one is face-to-face
with his defeat and position.
Dear Lord, forgive us,
Forgive our crumbling world,
for the sake of those sinless birds,
they are building nests,
they are growing up kids,
For the sake of birds, forgive us,
just show some mercy...

Translated by Kamran Nazirli