Angina Pectoris by Nazim Hikmet

Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) is one of my favorite poets and influential in my own work.

He is considered Turkey's national poet. Hikmet, a prolific writer, was also a communist

and when he was caught with communist pamphlets in his army locker he was jailed

for 12 years until the government was pressured by intellectuals to free him. Hikmet's

work is very imagistic and proletariot.



Nazim Hikmet



Angina Pectoris





If half my heart is here, doctor,

      the other half is in China

with the army flowing

     toward the Yellow River.

And, every morning, doctor,

every morning at sunrise my heart

     is shot in Greece.

And every night, doctor,

when the prisoners are asleep and the infirmary is deserted,

my heart stops at a run-down old house

                                       in Istanbul.

And then after ten years

all I have to offer my poor people

is this apple in my hand, doctor,

one red apple:

               my heart.

And that, doctor, that is the reason

for this angina pectoris--

not nicotine, prison, or arteriosclerosis.

I look at the night through the bars,

and despite the weight on my chest

my heart still beats with the most distant stars.



(1948)



Trans. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk (1993)