Sacred Destiny
Written by Mehmet Ismail
Translated from the Azerbaijani by the poet
Narrated by Bill Wolak
Azerbaijan
We were four
A spotted sheep
A wild apple
My mother and me.
As the memory of future life,
We were sent to the Earth.
My mother was beauty’s wedding gown.
The apple was the forests’ seed.
I was humanity’s childhood.
When you find the time, just squeeze me
And see who I am!
I am a mother pie,
Apple juice, and sheep milk.
Mehmet Ismail was born in Azerbaijan. His works have been translated into more than fifty languages from around the world. More than forty of his books have been published in Azerbaijan, Germany, Russia, Japan, France, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Moldova and Kosovo. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences, Literature and Art; the Ukrainian Academy of Higher Education; and the Romanian Academy of Constanta Tomitane. He was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the Ukrainian Academy of Higher Education. In addition, he was awarded the following: the Golden Pen (Azerbaijan), the Ostrovsky Literary Prize (Russia), and the Literary Prize of the Foundation of Writers and Artists of Turkey (Turkey). He became the winner of a poetry competition organized by the Religious Foundation of Turkey. The Literaturnaya Gazeta, published in Moldova, honored him with the Poetry Prize of the Year. Also, he received the Azem Shkreli (Kosovo) Prize (2018), the Writers’ Union of Russia. I. F. Annensky (2018), and the International Competition named after Mahmut Kashkari (2019). He has participated in poetry festivals in Italy, Hungary, Germany, Russia, Romania, and South Korea. The Canakkale Poetry Academy annually awards new poets with the Mehmed Ismail Literary Prize, which is presented in Canakkale, Turkey. Currently, he is a professor at Canakkale University in Turkey.