Freedom has Hands - Oktay Rifat

Proudly they were running, our horses
Toward the calm sea

The way the pigeons were flying
Perhaps it’s the happiness of freedom!

Kissing was forbidden, did you know,
To think
To fight for labor work force, was forbidden!

They separated the product from its tree
Selling it as much as it sells at the bazaars
The branches of effort broken

Light is blinding, they say,
Freedom a ticking bomb.
The ones who break our light
And put an arson on freedom are themselves!
When we reach for it they want it to explode,
And burn.
There are minefields
Bread and water sit in the darkness.

Freedom has hands,
Eyes, feet,
To wipe away its sweat
To see tomorrow,
Headed toward equality.

I’m a cage, you’re ivy;
Twine as much as you can twine

This is a love for freedom,
It only takes one to see it once
It’s a piece of clothing that will last
It’s a dream that is the truth

Brave drivers of the historic movement
Workers, the bees of the world’s beehive
Flying around a piece of dark bread
Brothers who bring freedom to our world.
With the thoughts of that bread they wake up,
With the thoughts of that bread the nights meet mornings;
With that sun we can reach freedom.

This hope is the door to being free;
A tiny crack into happy days.
This happiness is the light of better days;
It reflects upon us quietly, frightened.
Come, people of my nation,
To the doors of freedom are like a branch;
Behind it, the sky is blue.

---

Oktay Rifat [Horozcu] (1914 - 1944) Turkey
Translated by Nagehan Bayindir
Source: Collective English Translation of the Works of Turkish Poets Nazim Hikmet, Necip Fazil Kisakurek, Orhan Veli Kanik, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, by Nagehan Bayindir (Phd thesis), Rutgers University, 2009