– Nazim Hikmet

I stand in the advancing light,

my hands hungry, the world beautiful.

My eyes can’t get enough of the trees-

they’re so hopeful, so green.

A sunny road runs through the mulberries,

I’m at the window of the prison infirmary.

I can’t smell the medicines

carnations must be blooming nearby.

It’s this way:

being captured is beside the point,

the point is not to surrender.

(Mehmed Nâzım Ran (15 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), famed the world over as Nâzım Hikmet, was a Turkish-Polish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. He was repeatedly arrested for his socialist beliefs and spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated into more than 50 languages. Translated into English by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum. India Cultural Forum is a group of cultural activists and academics, who see India as part of a rich and plural heritage, and seek to build on this heritage for a more just, egalitarian and humane society.)