EXISTENCE
Bring to me the world’s map.
Search carefully –
You can’t find my country.
Go to the United Nations.
Look at all the flags on the building,
Count the nations, one by one.
You will not find the Kurdish name,
Or see any colors for Kurdistan.
This is the colonial map,
Result of bloody war
Created by unjust rulers,
Who made my nation disappear.
We need an explanation.
Why was our name erased?
Why was our nation denied?
They went too far
To remove us from history,
To claim we don’t exist.
But forty million like me
Shout in the Kurdish language –
DRODAKAN! You are lying!
Here we are! Here we are!
1994 by Yassin Aref