Azerbaijan! I Remembered Azerbaijan! Poem by Joe Sadeghloo

Oh, wishes and dreams and not so great expectations
All locked up inside my head:

The forgotten melodies
The clock-work toys with keys in their backs
The puppet shows
Sly businessmen
Junk foods!
The craze for living
And lies, lies, lies...
Small inputs for big outputs...
Tough competitions...
Lots of losers...
A few faceless winners...
Fresh out of the jungle of dirty cities
These new prophets of money!

I thought of:
Fairy tales, childish games, innocent loves
Heroes and cowards, horses and ponies
Acres and acres of green meadows, sun flowers...
The majestic poplar trees...
The rich smell of wheat farms...
The poor, simple and warm blooded peasants of Azerbaijan
And their lively coffee shops
Drinking tea in grochkas
Listening to Rashid Behbudov over radio Azerbaijan
singing old folk songs...
Or gathering around the travelling ashugs
Reciting the tragic love story of Asli and Karam

Oh, wishes and dreams and not so great expectations
All locked up inside my head!



Grochkas=кружка=Russian word for mug
Rashid Behbudov, (1915-1988) , Ra-SHID BEH-bu-dov-was one of Azerbaijan's greatest singers.
Ashug=(also ashik) , a folk singer and storyteller among the Azerbaijanis.
Asli and Karam=The tragic love story of Karam(young man belonging to
the Moslem faith) and Asli(young girl belonging to the Christian faith) .