Nazim Hikmet – Hiroshima Child

Dear Nabra, I have never heard of you until the news talked about you – and how I wish I have never heard your name, and how I wish you were alive.  You have been dead for a few days now, and I am thinking of you and many beautiful young children whose skin color not too different from my own sister’s. I know many were killed on that day, on many streets, and many will die as I am writing these words for you, and I may never hear of most of them. I know you cannot see this letter, nor this will bring any of you back, but I have nothing else to offer to you, so maybe I am writing this to myself to ease my pain.

Nabra, you were killed not too far from where I live, your skin color not too different than mine, and maybe it was another lucky day for me that I got to come to your memorial, Nabra. You were killed here, in your own country. You were killed simply because you were you, because you had your hair covered, because you were a young muslim woman, because now you are an easily noticeable target.

I am thinking of you Nabra on this summer day that you won’t know of. I am thinking of you when some people out there can brush your death off as road rage, and just look at you as a murder case. I am thinking of you on this Ramadan day, and how you will never again sit at iftar table with your family. Oh Nabra, how empty the table must be tonight at Iftar, and all the nights to come. You know, yesterday, as we gathered around in DuPont to stand vigil for you, I thought about my mother, she’s fasting, and I thought of your mother who’s fasting too, and I felt the violent pain that is stabbing her heart as she grieves for her young darling.

Is the sun warm? Are the clouds beautiful? Would you like some of Grandma’s rice pudding to break your fast? Oh Dear Nabra, this is making me cry, and I cannot write no longer, for nothing is helping and words are too sad to stand together on a line. May you rest in peace now. May no mother cry for her young one again.

Nazim Hikmet