Ali Karim
(1931-1969)
Ali Karim (full name Ali Pasha oghlu Karimov) was a popular Azerbaijani poet. He was born on March 22, 1931, in Goychay town. He graduated from Moscow Literature Institute named after M. Gorky (1955). He eventually headed the Poetry Department of Azerbaijan magazine. He received an award for his epic entitled First Symphony at the Sixth Festival of World Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957. He is the author of several books such as Two Loves (1960), Always Traveling (1963), Golden Wing (1965), Pay The Debt To Mother (1970), Stairs (1978), Come Back (1983). He died on June 30, 1969 in Baku.
The Stone
Once in ancient times
half-naked an old man threw a stone
at his enemy,
and made his hands bleed!
But the stone didn"t fall on the ground,
flied away from horizon to horizons.
Don"t think that the stone was lost,
it turned into sword,
it turned into bullet,
it turned into cannon-ball...
It didn"t stop like a thought.
It broke meridian,
it broke dreams drop by drop,
it turned into pieces the ocean
like atom and flied around...
The same stone now is not stopping-
where is it flying?
That neutron, that electron
is changed to fires,
to the deaths and poison...
You, my contemporary friend!
The blood brother of Truth!
Tell me,
could we stop that stone
thrown by that half-naked
and half-wild ancient man?