Nazim Hikmet Quotes

I'm only seven, although I died In Hiroshima long ago, I'm seven now as I was then - When children die, they do not grow.

There are reasons to be sad, disconsolate, bitter, but there is not a single reason to be hopeless.

That's how it goes, my friend. The problem is not falling a captive, it's how to avoid surrender.

The life of man is long, perhaps longer than necessary Or perhaps it is shorter than necessary?

Loneliness feels like prison.

To visit a museum is fine,
to be a museum piece is terrible!

- Gioconda and Si-Ya-U

Thinking of you is pretty, hopeful,
It is like listening to the most beautiful song
From the most beautiful voice on earth ...
But hope is not enough for me any more,
I don't want to listen to songs any more,
I want to sing.

I come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead for I am dead

I'm only seven though I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I'm seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow

My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind

I need no fruit I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead for I am dead

All that I need is that for peace
You fight today you fight today
So that the children of this world
Can live and grow and laugh and play

- The Girl Child

And don't forget, a prisoner's wife must always think good thoughts.

At eighteen you don't think about memories, you tell them.

Separation isn't time or distance
it's the bridge between us
finer than silk thread sharper than swords

We can only reach our goal amid bloodletting

My country or the stars Or my youth, what's farthest?

LET'S GIVE THE WORLD TO THE CHILDREN
Let's give the world to the children just for one day
like a balloon in bright and striking colours to play with
let them play singing among the stars
let's give the world to the children
like a huge apple like a warm loaf of bread
at least for one day let them have enough
let's give the world to the children
at least for one day let the world learn friendship
children will get the world from our hands
they'll plant immortal trees

The most beautiful sea
hasn't been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child
hasn't grown up yet.
The most beautiful days
we haven't seen yet.
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
I haven't said yet ...

However and wherever we are, we must live as if we will never die.

Welcome baby it's your turn to live they're laying for you chicken pox whooping cough smallpox malaria TB heart disease cancer and so on unemployment hunger and so on train wrecks bus accidents plane crashes on-the-job injuries earthquakes floods droughts and so on heartbreak alcoholism and so on nightsticks prisons doors and so on they're laying for you the atom bomb and so on welcome baby it's your turn to live they're laying for you socialism communism and so on.

We'll dive into the earth together. And if one day a wild flower finds water and springs up from that piece of earth, its stem will have two blooms for sure: one will be you, the other me.

I know you can't wash in the same river even once
I know the river will bring new lights that you will not see
I know we live slightly longer than a horse and not nearly as long as a crow
I know this has troubled people before and will trouble those after me
I know all this has been said a thousand times before and will be said after me
I didn't know I like the sky
cloudy or clear
the blue vault that Andrei watched on his back on the battlefield at Borodino
...