THE SNAKE IN THE PILLOW

Günel Mövlud
Translated by Arturo Desimone

Autumn, again.
The apartment is cold, sleep concurs
between slow hot breaths of two chimneys.
There are still truths I kept hidden from you,
there are still Lies,
but a year transgressed without proper sleep,
I think someone cold and malevolent planted
a hissing snake
in my pillow.
I search my hair for the origin
of the bourgeois oppressor; my autumn
with a snake that does not embrace me like a friend,
Mirror hunted down one white collaborator-snake, on my head,
I might just leave him there to multiply, the white strand.
What have I done, in my 30 years?
Let the passionless snakes breed,
multiply on my head I don’t care
What have I done for a red future
for my country, for revolution?
Dear poet of a people,
let us get together and drink.
Let us see what remains of the tears that did not organize,
unfed by the trouble.
This is a time when notoriety
was meant to crackle around my black hair,
Let the devils multiply, I don’t care
Let us get together and drink, dear poet,
Let us see what remains of tears.
The most innocent angels are dying in me,
the most beautiful women grow old.

Salam, şair, darıxıram, bu təklik
Yenə məni üzüyumşaq tanıdı.
Yenə payız, yenə soyuq, yenə mən
Yenə yerim sobaların yanıdı
Hələ sənə demədiyim bir gerçək
Hələ sənə açmadığım yalan var
Düz bir ildi yuxu yata bilmirəm
Qorxuram ki, yastığımda ilan var
Ağ tük tapdım arasından saçımın
Qoparmadım, saxlamışam, çoxalsın
Otuz ildə cavan qalıb, neynədim?
Canı çıxsın, saçlarımın, qocalsın.
Gəl, bir gün oturaq qədəh-qədəhə
Görək, göz yaşından nə qalır, şair?
İçimdə ən məsum mələklər ölür,
Ən gözəl qadınlar qocalır, şair!

Imanova Günel  publishes the pen name of Günel Mövlud in Azerbaijan. As a translator of Russian to Azeri, she she has translated Victor Pelevin’s Amon Ra and extant Russian translations of Marquez and Stendhal. Born in 1981in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on the Armenian border, at the age of 12 she had to leave Karabakh with her parents because of the conflict. She studied theater arts at Baku University and has worked as an journalist for local newspapers on Azerbaijani societal issues. Her first book of poems Darkness and Us was printed in 2004. Most recently the books 5 xl and Response to the Late Afternoon appeared. Günel’s joining a movement to end anti-Armenian propaganda in Azerbaijan elicited the attention of authorities and religious activists. She is currently based between Georgia and Germany, where she lives with her husband and child and is a journalist for the Baku chapter Radio Liberty and MeydanTV.

Arturo Desimone's poems, articles and short fiction pieces have previously appeared in Drunken Boat 22, (link heredrunkenboat.com/db22/romani/arturo-desimone ) in Counterpunch, New Orleans Review, The Missing Slate and Sydney Review of Books. Two books of his poems and drawings appeared in recent months with small presses in the UK, Africa and Argentina. These are "Costa Nostra/ Mare Nostrum" (Hesterglock press UK) and " Ouafa and Thawra: About a Lover from Tunisia" (Mwanaka Editions 2019/ Clare Beter Ediciones Argentina). His interest in Azerbaijan began with reading the novel Ali and Nino by Kurban Said, then discussing it with Azerbaijani friends, and then immersing himself in the cultural and political contexts of Azerbaijan.