Life
Whoever we befriended, we never turned away,
Translated from Uzbek · Original text
Whoever we befriended, we never turned away,We kept our loyalty and faithfulness for good.We never waded through betrayal’s swampy mire,We loved with all our hearts and gave them honor due.We cast ourselves beneath their feet upon the ground,“Walk over us,” we said, and lay like carpets there.We gave our hearts into the hands of love, and foundOur only craft was burning in the pain of parting.Whatever wrongs, whatever mutinies there were, we pardoned,Like light we rained on every eye that wept.But those who called themselves our friends, it seems,They lit the bonfires, and it was we who burned.We did not leave. Like Ishmael, we kept our vow,Perhaps the others have forgotten what they said.And this, too, is a joy so beautiful, so firm —Never to tread again the footprints left behind.O you new saplings, O you young and tender trees,Your buds have not yet ripened into fruit.Your minds are dazed by thoughts of every kind,Your ways have not yet learned what steadfastness is.Learn well, while you can, the lesson of faithfulness,You will have need of it along the road of life.For whoever leaves the debt of faithfulness unpaidWill pay its toll in cries and in laments.Akrom MALIK
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