Embracing brown-gray melancholy…
Jumeken Najimedenov’s poem
Qalam
Due to its educational aspirations, Qalam strives to explain the world - hence, every historical or cultural phenomenon considered here is accompanied by a wealth of additional information. However, in this section, we have decided to do without unnecessary words and familiar comments. Before you are fragments of verses collected from different eras and parts of the world, which seem to speak for themselves and are notably beautiful to us. As one modern lyricist expressed on a similar occasion, if it's without explanations; it's probably to do with something in one's blood.
Qoñyr
My warmly-brown mother, wrapped in the evening darkness,
Remained sad, her eyes were moist with tears.
Thus, I set out on the brown road,
Gray thoughts crept in, depriving me of rest.
Ahead, my path still stretches, very gray.
The sorrow velvet fills my chest at times.
The same as velvet-brown lullaby performed by Kazakh mothers,
To their dear little ones under their first stars.
Brown field, brown steppe, velvety sound...
And in the brown flows all my life.
In the gray hustle and bustle of autumn
I introduced into our family a neighbor-girl as a wife.
The velvety brown kuy was a friend in my youth,
The brown-gray covered the peak of the hill, where my mother remained.
The brown dusk is covering the rabbit hill and this evening lingers…
Embracing brown-gray melancholy…I sit alone constrained.
Jumeken Najimedenov (1935-1983) was a Kazakh poet. He was born in Kurmangazy District, in Atyrau Province. In 1956, he wrote the lyrics of the Kazakh patriotic song "My Kazakhstan" along with Shamshi Kaldayakov, who composed the music.
