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LITERARY NOOK
When children die they do not grow
Today, Dec. 11, 2017, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. In honor of ICAN “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons” I would like to share an anti-nuclear weapons poem about Hiroshima written by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. It has been recorded and sung by many artists, including Pete Seeger, the Byrds, and Bruce Springsteen.
I Come and Stand at Every Door
By NAZIM HIKMET
I come and stand at every door but none can hear 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 sweets, or 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.
There will be an 85-year-old Japanese survivor of the atomic bombing on stage in Stockholm to receive the award. She was 13 years old when the bomb hit and only a mile or two from ground zero.
