**A Poem by Gulrukhsor Safieva**

To Chechnya, burning in flame

Shameful I am,
That being so powerless,
When you are perished,
You parish standing!
When you are at your last gasp,
Shameful I am,
That I am alive, Oh Chechnya!
Fireplace burned not once,
Pain without sobbing,
The country of suffering.
My wild cry,
My silent moan-
Chechnya!

Chechnya-
My diseased consciousness,
The politics’ blood-stained novel,
Chechnya-
Wounded eagle,
My wounded Tajikistan,-
Chechnya!

Shameful I am that I am dancing,
Oh, death,
In your carde ballet .
Shameful, shameful,
That I am living- not being responsible for anything!
Oh, my open wound,
Chechnya!
Oh my second Tajikistan,
Chechnya!

Grievous year of 1995

(written in 1995, translator unknown)

source: https://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/en/Diario/04_24_04_09.html

gulrukhsor safieva (b. 1947) is a famous tajik poet > the chechens were deported to central asia in 1944 on the orders of josef stalin, and they were only allowed to return to their native land in 1957 > the death rate was very high: at least 1/3 of the chechens died > when russia cracked down on chechens seeking independence in the aftermath of the fall of the soviet empire, many central asians remembered the suffering of their former neighbors, and safieva's poem testifies to the solidarity of the people of central asia