The Little Girl
– Nazim Hikmet
It is me knocking at your door
– at how many doors i’ve been
But no one can see me
Since the dead are invisible.
I died at Hiroshima
that was ten years ago
I am a girl of seven
Dead children do not grow.
First my hair caught fire
then my eyes burnt out
I became a handful of ashes
blown away by the wind.
I don’t wish anything for myself
for a child who is burnt to cinders
cannot even eat sweets.
I’m knocking at your doors
aunts and uncles, to get your signatures
so that never again children will burn
and so they can eat sweets.
This Mortal Coil on their 1991 album Blood with vocals of Louise Rutkowski, Deirdre Rutkowski with Tim Freeman.
I come and stand at every door
But no one hears my silent dread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead, for I am dead
I’m only seven although I’ve 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.
sterileneutrino 