“Little Slaves” by Yodgar Obid

Posted on October 19, 2009 by admin | No Comments

Little Slaves
Bitter frost and biting wind at their backs
How it howls and wails;
Weakened and bent, they trudge with their sacks
Little hands, little slaves
Torn galoshes and worn out clothes
They dream of warm sunny days;
Shaking from cough they tremble as they go
Little hands, little slaves
Childish thoughts, sweet dreams
All of them perish, dead and gone;
In their native land [...]

Poetry and the people’s tragedy

Posted on October 18, 2009 by admin | No Comments

Literature being the common spiritual refuge for those living under totalitarian regimes, it is not surprising that the literary intelligentsia was among the first to speak out against Uzbekistan’s cotton monoculture in the waning years of the Soviet era.  Sadly, they are still decrying it twenty years later. Yodgar Obid, exiled now for seventeen years, [...]