Let Go Of My Hair Poem by Ashti Salih Ashgull

Let go of my hair.
I have bound a hundred oak trunks within it.
Let go of my hair.
From a single strand, I wove a hundred braids.

Let go of my hair.
Even if your violence multiplies a thousand times,
your head will never rise
to the rubbers of a Kurdish woman in Ranka.
Your head will never reach
a Kurdish woman warrior wearing Charoka.

Let go of my hair.
Your hands are still red—
blood-soaked, cut deep,
mixed with the tears of Love's mother.
Your hands are trained only for killing:
cold corpses, raids, rehearsed brutality.

You ignoble, overbearing, arrogant thing—
let go of my hair.
If not today, then tomorrow.
You will be driven back to the desert.


Author: Abubakr Ismaeel
translated to English: Ashti Salih


*Ranka: the Kurdish traditional trousers.
*Charoka: Kurdish traditional Shawl for women.