Poems

The Sun is one to see and know everything...

The Sun is one to see and know everything.
The Earth is like a stomach* made of patience.
I saw a hint [of world’s mess] and grew terrified,
How don’t they blow up? [How do they still keep going?] Thousands of birds of mine are lost in the sky,
My voice is unlikely to reach beyond white-capped mountains.
I realised that nothing will change
While looking out of the window today. Big city. Resilient soul. Busy life.
Tree leaves don’t recognise happiness.
A nostalgia followed by its foal**
Is chasing ever-racing time. Unable to keep up with time’s gallop,
I’m suffocated in the web of loneliness.
[=I’m running afoul of bindweed of loneliness]
I look out of the window, I am fine –
And realise that this is happiness.
 
 
* ‘Stomach’ is understood as something that contains both positive and negative, good and bad. For a Kazakh reader, there’s also an association between ‘stomach’ and ‘blow up’ since phrase ‘k̦arny žarylu’ [lit. ‘stomach explosion’] means ‘a certain death’, and k̦aryn [stomach] is perceived as something that potentially might blow up if one consumes, or eats too much.  Žarylu [blow up], when it stands on its own, means ‘to lose one’s temper’, exactly as it's used in English.
 
** ‘Foal’ here is associated with the assumption that foals are swift and restless like time itself. It’s also referring to the assumption that nostalgia is often the origin of other feelings or emotions, as a foal would be to its dam.