I Come And Stand At Every Door

Originally a poem by the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and translated into English by Jeannette Turner.

Here Gabriel Rosenstock translates Pete Seeger’s version of this great antiwar song (https://tinyurl.com/pnyykae).

 

Im’ sheasamh ar gach tairseach bím

 

Im’ sheasamh ar gach tairseach bím

Ní chloistear áfach mo choiscéim

An cnag ní chloiseann éinne fós

Mar ‘is marbh mé, is marbh mé.

 

Seacht mbliana ó shin a cailleadh mé

In Hiroshima fad-fadó

Seacht mbliana fós atáim anois

Ní fhásann marbhán níos mó.

 

Barrdhódh mo ghruaig le lasair bhuí

Is táimse anois gan radharc na súl

Dusta anois mo chnámha bán’

Á scuabadh ag an ngaoth aduaidh

 

Níl torthaí uaim, ná gráinne rís’

Níl milseán uaim ná fiú arán

Níl rud ar bith ag teastáil uaim

Im’ mharbhán, im’ mharbhán

 

Níl uaim anois – sé seo mo ghuí –

Ach síocháin i gcroí gach n-aon,

Is lig do pháistí uil’ an domhain

Bheith lánsásta leis an saol.

 

I Come And Stand At Every Door

 

I come and stand at every door

But no one hears my silent tread

I knock and yet remain unseen

For I am dead, for I am dead.

 

I’m only seven although I died

In Hiroshima long ago

I’m seven now as I was then

When children die they do not grow.

 

My hair was scorched by swirling flame

My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind

Death came and turned my bones to dust

And that was scattered by the wind.

 

I need no fruit, I need no rice

I need no sweet, nor even bread

I ask for nothing for myself

For I am dead, for I am dead.

 

All that I ask is that for peace

You fight today, you fight today

So that the children of this world

May live and grow and laugh and play.