A poem for Ali Gezer (Zerdeşt Dersîmî)

Son with Nurhak's Gaze

Hey! Nurhak... Hey! Left side of our heart,
Hey our qibla
Oh! Noble son of Nurhaks
Son with a heart like a falcon
Son who considers mountains his bed and quilt,
Son who sees mountains as the essence of life.

If being a guerrilla means:
Creating something from nothing with your nails,
You pierced the mountains with your nails.

If being a guerrilla means changing an era
Flowing into new ages
You gave birth to every mother, every father you embraced
In the light of your eyes.

Oh son with Nurhak's gaze
If being a guerrilla means when necessary;
Being shot in every nook and cranny when needed
You were shot at every dawn
If it means wandering street by street,
Mountain by mountain
If it means resisting torture
If it means imprisonment and exile
You walked all these paths
Shouting and with cheerful smiles

If being a guerrilla means saying "I am here"
In places where you should never be:
Hey son!!!
You said "I am here"
On a quiet street of Pervari
Whose name is not even known.

If being a guerrilla means infiltrating the enemy when necessary
You became the first guerrilla shot while wearing enemy clothes.

Oh wise, golden son of Nurhaks
If it's sacrifice, if being a guerrilla is an unconditional stance:
You descended without hesitation: from life to the edge of death,
Leaving a new life on the brink of death

If being a guerrilla is an unconditional commitment to life
You loved the mountains without expecting anything in return, just like love
Like loving a girl..

Oh light of my eyes
Cheerful voice of our hearth,
Smiling face, heart on fire
Loving gaze, scent of love
Stance like dawn,
My Nurhak-statured one
My narcissus-scented son,
My son who submerges his heart in stormy lakes

Now whichever street I call out to
My voice echoes back to me.
Now whichever mountain I go to search for your gaze,
My own gaze returns to me.

Oh son whose fate I couldn't create,
Son who determined my fate:
Now whichever face I look at, I see you.
In the solitude of every street;
I hear guerrilla voices.

Oh son.
Oh son, I no longer turn my direction to Allah or to people
My direction always turns towards the mountains, towards you.

My eyelashes;
My white beard became a knife;
Not slowly,
But quickly began to slice my heart.

Oh my sons and daughters who embrace me like a father..
Why does my soul ache so much?
Why do my shoulders slump so much?

If being the father of a guerrilla;
If being the father of a revolutionary
Means accepting all this,
I accept, my sons, my daughters..

Don't look at me like that, son.
Let me not see sorrow in those smiling eyes.
Don't look at me:
It's because my hands, my heart, my gaze haven't touched my lands,
That's why these silent screams.

If the highest, most undisputed revolutionism,
Is leaving a meaningful note for the future:
You left the most beautiful note.
As the first guerrilla shot in soldier's uniform
You gave birth to me from yourself.

If being a father of a guerrilla
Means opening your body to rain and storms
I open myself, son.

If being a father of a guerrilla
Means burning in the sun,
If being a father of a guerrilla
Means dipping your heart in boiling oil
Every day I dip my heart in the hottest oils

If being a guerrilla's father means exile
I accept exile too.
As long as you sleep peacefully.
As long as the scent of snowdrops growing in your soil reaches me.

Know this, son, your honorable life;
Is my honor.
Strength to my hands that can't hold,
Power to my slumping shoulders,
You are light to my unseeing eyes, son.

If being a guerrilla's father means;
Being torn to pieces
And gathering all our pieces
I'll gather them, son.

I kiss the essence of the struggle...

Your father
Ibrahim Gezer