Winter 1996 (4.4) Pages 40-43 Youth In Search of the Future Photo Essay   Older than My Father Poem by Bakhtiyar Vahabzade My granddad died when he was 80, My dad - when he was 60. But I am older In my forties Than both my father And my grandfather. Telephones Telegraphs Radio Newspapers They load the days and load the months And every hour and every minute... Condense the world, whose day is to the right, And to the left-the night- Into one tiny room, With Spring at your head, and Winter - at your feet... Continents, poles Are united by my speed. In the heat and the flame Of this speed, Of this audacity, My love And my very nature Have changed... The greater the speed, The shorter the distance. Yesterday borrows minutes from today And today- From tomorrow. The days are all mixed up, And so are the months, We have lost months, economizing years. In a single month I live as much As my granddad did in a single year. I'm a river flowing down a mountain, Skirting the mountain peak, A stream muddy in the mountains And a clear river in the valley- A river with hundreds of different moods. I'm older than my father. I'm older than my grandfather.   Translated by Louis Zellikoff "Azerbaijanian Poetry," Edited by Mirza Ibrahimov, Progress Publishers: Moscow. 1969     Left: "Miss Baku - 1996, "Narmina Zarbaliyeva.       From Azerbaijan International (4.4) Winter 1996. © Azerbaijan International 1997. All rights reserved. AI Home | Magazine Choice | Topics | Store | Contact us