Dedicated to PEN Zentrum Deutschland, Hon-Prof. Dr. Sascha Feuchert, Manuel Emmerich
Poems of German genius
Where Mermaids and fairies live,
Schiller, Goethe, Heine —
And songs of Lorelei.
These poems are known to everyone —
I re-read them in my memory;
I listen to these songs,
Seated in my prison cell.
We are the nomads of Aryana,
Our god is Tengri* — the Sky.
Impassioned devotees of Truth,
We race through space and time.
In the saddles of Hunnish horses,
As princes we came to Europe:
Celestial people –
A breed of burnished gold.
As Poets-warriors we ascended the throne —
And Seri** became Herr and Sir!
We live in Germanic sagas —
In the heroic song of Beowulf.
We are alive in the greatest dramas —
Faust and Mephistopheles!
I can save my soul —
This spark of heavenly fire.
But though my firey burden glows immortal,
I, mere mortal, wait in death’s cell.
We are the Knights of Aquarius —
Freedom’s warriors.
And the Lorelei sings to me
Her faerie songs.
*Tengri is Proto-Turkic for sky
**Seri means poet-warrior in Kazakh
17.09.2013
The city of Arkalyk, “krytka”, LSP
УЧ УК 161/12
(translated by Askar Aidarkhan, Aron Atabek’s son. See original)
See also Aron Atabek’s Letter for PEN