Poems of Hussein Habasch (Kurdistan)

You Ask Me!
 Hussein Habasch

You ask me: Why did you invite me to that charming country?
I did not invite you, but rather I invited my heart and the sun of my life!
 
You ask me: Why did you take my hand in yours?
My hand did not take your hand, but it only wanted to pray in yours!
 
You ask me: Why were you watching my dance in the desert?
To see how the oases bloom under your feet!
 
You ask me: Why you kissed me?
I was not kissing you, but I was cleansing my lips of sins!
 
You ask me: What am I to you?
The rose of existence and the herb of immortality, my love!
 
You ask me: Why did you choose me out of all the stars?
My eyes were blind to all the stars and I could only see one star and that was you!
 
You ask me: Why did you love me?
Why do you ask me, why am I breathing?
 
You ask me: Why don't you sleep?
So that I don't lose you for a single second before my eyes!
 
You ask me: What's the point of life?
It's pointless without you!
 
You ask me: Why I drink so much?
 What does a thirsty lover do when he's far from his lover's lips?
 
You ask me: What is this in your chest?
The knife of your love is stuck there forever!
 
You ask me: What you'll do without me.
I'll blow up my heart with dynamite and leave forever!
 
You ask, you ask and you ask…
The answer is: Love, the greatness of love, my love!
 
 
Your Name Is a Gift!
 
If you want a tree to blossom
and its buds to bloom,
carve your beloved's name on its trunk.
 
If you want a wall to blossom and always smell sweet,
write your beloved's name on it.
 
If you want to dispel the cold and harshness of winter,
draw a heart on the snow
and write your beloved's name inside it!
 
If you want beauty to overflow in the world and its status to rise,
whisper your beloved's name in its ear.
 
If you want the sea to give up its saltiness
and calm its troubled spirit,
write your beloved's name on its tides.
 
If you want the bird to sing all kinds of music,
put your beloved's name on its tongue.
 
If you want to be cured of depression and sadness,
repeat your beloved's name three times every second!
 
If you want springs to flow and rivers to overflow with love,
whisper your beloved's name in the ears of valleys and mountains.
 
If you want the sand to turn into real, priceless gold,
write your beloved's name on it.
 
If you want your tear to become a pearl or a dewdrop,
keep your beloved's name between your eyelids.
 
If you want cities to open their gates to you,
write your beloved's name on their entrances and walls...
 
If you want the sun of your life to always shine brightly,
tattoo your lover's name on the walls of your heart, inside and out.
 
If you want to turn your walk into a dance,
your hand movements into wings
and your body the body of a great bird
first, write your beloved's name on your legs
then write it on the face of the sky.
First dance,
then fly up to the sky
and there, embrace your beloved's name...!
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Hussein Habasch
KURDISTAN
 
Hussein Habasch is a poet from Afrin, Kurdistan, born in 1970. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany. His poems have been translated into English, German, Spanish, French, Persian, Uzbek, Albanian, Russian, Romanian, Italian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Vietnamese, Nepali, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tajik, Bengali, Turkish, Berber (Amazigh), Bosnian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Greek, Mandarin (the language of Taiwan), Tzotzil (the language of the Mayan peoples of Mexico), Dutch, Punjabi. His poetry has been published in more than 200 International Poetry Anthologies and his books include: Drowning in Roses, Fugitives across Evros River, Higher than Desire and more Delicious than the Gazelle's Flank, Delusions to Salim Barakat, A Flying Angel, No pasarán (in Spanish), Copaci Cu Chef (in Romanian), Dos Árboles (in Spanish), Tiempos de Guerra (in Spanish), Fever of Quince (in Kurdish), Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan (in English and Spanish), The Red Snow (in Chinese), Dead arguing in the corridors (in Arabic) Drunken trees (in Kurdish), Boredom of a tired statue (in Kurdish), Flor del Espinillo (in Spanish) A Rose for the Heart of Life, selected Poems (in English), Olvido (in Spanish), La harde de cerfs meurt de soif (in French), Jibîrkirin (in Kurdish), Los Kurdos Y Dios (in Spanish), A Rose for the Heart of Life (in English and Bengali) and Stones in Exile (in English). He has participated in many International Poetry Festivals including: Colombia, Nicaragua, France, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Morocco, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kosovo, Macedonia, Costa Rica, Slovenia, China, Taiwan, Cuba, Sweden, New York City, Sarajevo, Greece, Albania, Cyprus, Uruguay, India, Rockport (USA), Indonesia, Italy, Poland and Serbia. He has won several awards: The International Best Poet Prize 2016 awarded in China by the International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, the Journal of the World Poets Quarterly (Multilingual) and the Editorial Board of the Chinese Poetry International, the Great Kurdish Poet Hamid Bedirkhan Award, awarded by the General Union of Kurdish Writers and Journalists (2022), the International “Bosnian Stećak” Award for Poetry, awarded by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Writers Union (2022), the Bangladesh Kathak International Literary Prize, awarded at the World Thinkers’ and Writers’ Peace Meet in Calcutta, India (2024), he has also been rewarded with a honorific price at the Safi International Poetry Forum in Morocco (2024), he was invited as a featured international poet to read at Walt Whitman's birthplace in Huntington, New York, for the "Walking with Whitman" program (2025) and a special award and honor from the AFRIN Fine Arts Festival 2025 in Germany.