Aziz’s name

Yangisar Yadykar

Aziz is now thirty years old, my old friend, I keep thinking about the story he once told me, the story of how he got his name.  “My grandmother was not yet thirty when she and my grandfather firmly decided that to continue to stay in Urumchi for them was a tantamount to death and the only solution for them was to move to the Soviet Union. At that time they already had three children, two five-year-old daughters, twins -my aunts- and a thirteen-year-old son, my uncle, Aziz.


Grandfather was part of the national army. In the Union he had some connections, in Kazan and Alma-Ata. In Kazan he had friends from the Polytechnic Institute, and some of his relatives were in Alma-Ata. As a child I remember always inquiring my grandma of how she got here, she would always look somewhere to the distance and say that she sailed to Almaty on a steamboat, that would always surprised me and I did not believe. How do you come to a landlocked Alma-Ata on a steamboat? But then it turned out that there was a real shipping link across the Ili River.


The East Turkestan Republic was nearly abolished, but the bursts of fighting were still ongoing. Waiting for the necessary documents, grandmother with her children was in one of the villages near Ghulja. The river port was nearby. One of the summer days, the package arrived with documents and a letter from grandfather, where he said that they should immediately be floated on the first ferry without waiting for him. So they did. Only women and children were on the ferry, even the captain was a young girl in her early twenties. Of the male, the oldest were Aziz and a few other twelve and thirteen year olds.

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Let Sayragul sing!

Aziz Isa Elkun

About the poem:
this poem is dedicated to the courageous Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh from East Turkistan. She was arrested in May 2018, after crossing into Kazakhstan illegally, and in a court hearing, she gave testimony about the re-education camps in East Turkistan (Xinjiang). She has bravely spoken to the outside world about China’s “Concentration Camps.” 

When it was written:
On 1 August 2018, after arriving at Almaty airport from London, the first good news I heard was Sayragul Sauytbay’s release from detention after the Zharkent court hearing. 

Sayragul, let the Kazakh girl sing – sing, Sayragul
Sayragul, let her sing for her country – sing, Sayragul
Sayragul, let her sing for justice – sing, Sayragul
Sayragul, never stop her song – sing, Sayragul!

You are a voice for the voiceless – sing, Sayragul
You are a freedom fighter – sing, Sayragul
You are an envoy for freedom – sing, Sayragul
You hover like an eagle – sing, Sayragul!

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Before – ئالدىدا

Nimshehit
نىمشېھىت  Nimshehit
Translated by Aziz Isa Elkun


ۋەسلىدىن ئۆزگە كېرەكمەس ماڭا جانان ئالدىدا 
ئارزۇيۇم سەن ئېرۇرسەن تەن بىلەن جان ئالدىدا 
بىرگۈلى رەنا ئېرۇرسەن باغۇ بوستان ئالدىدا 
تا زىيارەت قىلـمىسام مەن سېنى ئىمكان ئالدىدا 
يۈزلۈرۈم شەرمەندە بولسۇن تاڭلا سۇبھان ئالدىدا

I need nothing except only the love of my beloved
You are the greatest hope of my soul and body
You are the finest rose in a land of gardens
I would visit you if only I had the chance
Let my face be shamed before the glory of the dawn

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