Journalist, poet , editor, and translator Nodira Abdullayeva was born in Namangan and graduated from the Journalism Faculty at Namangan State University. She is also studying at Foreign Language Department of the Uzbek National University in Tashkent. For many years, she has worked for regional radio station, local and national newspapers and magazines, Yoshlar TV and various publishing houses. She has edited over 30 non-fiction and scientific books in Uzbek and Russian languages and published several books of her own poetry, including Love In My In and You Are My Distant Close One. She has translated poems and short stories of a number of famous world authors from Russian, German and English into Uzbek and published in her collections, as well as in reputed literary magazines. Currently she works as an editor of Ecologiya Xabarnomasi environmental monthly. She lives in Tashkent with her spouse, poet Azam Abidov, and with her three sons.
WHO ARE YOU?
Who are you?
Quietude still
Questions behind you…
In my heart
An abstract desperation
Endless tremors…
Tremors overdue,
What’s better: making wait
Or expectation?
Who are you?
Your verses
Are intense with full emotion…
I am afraid of happiness and growth,
Cause in that deep jollity ocean
No bridges are able
to connect us both.
You keep silent…
You have no response,
Too many questions
Are behind your plight,
A riddle – called LOVE –
feeling no remorse
Tortures me,
shedding lights all the night.
###
Moment
The time turns back on me
and heightens tension:
The dawn breaks fast,
The sun sets in a hurry,
Is it time for autumn and separation?
I already miss you honestly, my deary.
You leave… this soul’s like a flowerbed,
The leaves are rueful in defoliation,
They pray and ask Creator for salvation
In the bosom of grief and desolation.
You are leaving… But I feel
cold and pain,
My sky turned black in the autumn tints,
I shed bitter tears before rain,
It looks like I fade away and wince.
Don’t turn back; autumn is near at hand,
Just leave me… and I wish you all the best.
Cover with the yellow leaves my head,
Betroth my soul to patience – I request.
(Translated from Uzbek by Azam Abidov)