{"id":511,"date":"2018-04-16T21:41:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T21:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/?p=511"},"modified":"2018-07-20T22:24:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T22:24:32","slug":"the-call-of-nuzugum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/the-call-of-nuzugum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Call of Nuzugum"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nurmemet Yasin<\/span><\/strong> (Orkishi)<\/p>\n

translated by Aziz Isa Elkun<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where are you our heroic men? <\/span>
\nLet us go to the desert,<\/span>
\nThe brave hunter finds freedom there,<\/span>
\nIt flows in his spirit and his blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reeds sing a desert song,<\/span>
\nHorses neigh on the horizon.<\/span>
\nThe heroic people who once lived by the sword, <\/span>
\nNow lie quiet beneath the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The floating moon becomes a beautiful girl,<\/span>
\nTelling a story in the blue*<\/span> sky,<\/span>
\nOh the reed bed fiercely burns,<\/span>
\nAnd with it the hopes of a whole nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We are listening to it silently,<\/span>
\nNot only with our ears but in our hearts,<\/span>
\nThe sand encroaches on the fertile lands,<\/span>
\nBut we are the real sandstorms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us go to the desert,<\/span>
\nThere the delicate moon is telling a tale,<\/span>
\nPerhaps it is a book of warriors,<\/span>
\nContaining many beautiful myths.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be not strange to meet,<\/span>
\nFreedom\u2019s son, heroic Chin Tomur*<\/span><\/span>
\nLet us live in a free world,<\/span>
\nSinging desert songs all our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

_________________
\nNotes:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Nuzugum (Nazugum) is an iconic heroine in Uyghur recent history. She is a symbol of the nationalist movement which fought the Manchu-Qing empire in the 1820s. She was also a poet and folk singer. In the 1820s during the rebellion in Kashgaria against Manchu-Qing rule, along with thousands of other people she was forcibly moved to the Ili region. After she arrived in Ili, a Manchu millitary official forced her to marry him. On the wedding day she killed the official and escaped to the mountains. She survived there for a month living in a cave until Manchu soldiers discovered her and killed her by setting fire to the reeds which surrounded her cave. Since then Nuzugum has become a popular Uyghur legend, and a nationalist symbol of resistance to foreign invaders. Her tomb is situated in the Uyghur Region of eastern Kazakhstan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

* Refers to the East Turkistan flag, which has a crescent moon on a blue background.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*Chin Tomur is a legendary Uyghur hero who defeated foreign enemies. <\/span><\/p>\n

(foot<\/span>notes provided by the translator<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\nRead original version of this poem in Uyghur:<\/p>\n

www.azizisa.org\/nuzugumning_chaqirqi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nurmemet Yasin (Orkishi) translated by Aziz Isa Elkun Where are you our heroic men? Let us go to the desert, The brave hunter finds freedom there, It flows in his spirit and his blood. The reeds sing a desert song, Horses neigh on the horizon. The heroic people who once lived by the sword,<\/p>\n

Read more…<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,28,30],"tags":[101,100],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elkun-poems-in-english","category-elkun-library","category-poem-translation","tag-nurmemet-yasin","tag-the-call-of-nuzugum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azizisa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}