Some advice to those who will serve time in prison

The following is probably one of the best poems ever composed by Nazim Hikmet. Read it out aloud to yourself and try to savour in each and every word


If instead of being hanged by the neck
you're thrown insidefor not giving up hope
in the world, your country, your people,
if you do ten or fifteen years
apart from the time you have left,you won't say,
"Better I had swung from the end of a ropelike a flag" --
You'll put your foot down and live.
It may not be a pleasure exactly,
but it's your solemn duty
to live one more dayto spite the enemy.
Part of you may live alone inside,
like a tone at the bottom of a well.
But the other part
must be so caught upin the flurry of the world
that you shiver there inside
when outside, at forty days' distance, a leaf moves.
To wait for letters inside,to sing sad songs,
or to lie awake all night staring at the ceilingis sweet but dangerous.
Look at your face from shave to shave,
forget your age,watch out for lice
and for spring nights,
and always rememberto eat every last piece of bread--
also, don't forget to laugh heartily.
And who knows,the woman you love may stop loving you.
Don't say it's no big thing:
it's like the snapping of a green branchto the man inside.
To think of roses and gardens inside is bad,
to think of seas and mountains is good.
Read and write without rest,
and I also advise weavingand making mirrors.
I mean, it's not that you can't pass
ten or fifteen years insideand more --
you can,as long as the jewel
on the left side of your chest doesn't lose it's luster!

May 1949 Nazim Hikmet