Answer

After Halabja* suffocated,
I wrote a long complaint to God
Before everyone,
I read it to a tree.
The tree cried.

From one side, a bird, a postman,
Said, “All right, who will deliver it?
If you are expecting me to take it,
I won’t reach Gods throne.

Late that night,
My angelic poem, dressed for mourning,
Said, “Don’t worry.

I will take it to the heights
Of the atmosphere.
But I won’t promise

He will take the letter Himself.
You know, the Great God
Who can see Him?

I said, “Thank you. Fly.”
My angelic inspiration flew
With my complaint.

The next day, it was returned.
God’s fourth secretary down,
A man by the name of Obaid,
At the bottom

Of the very same complaint,
Wrote to me in Arabic:
“Idiot, make it Arabic.

People here don’t know Kurdish.
They won’t take it to God.”

--- Sherko Bekas

translated by Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse & Halo Fariq

*Translator’s note: On March 16, 1988, as part of Anfal, Saddam Hussein’s military campaign against the Kurds of Iraq, Halabja withstood a chemical-weapons attack. The largest directed against a civilian population in history, it has been recognized as an act of genocide by the Iraqi High Criminal Court.