Dear Child,
O, you, a newly blossoming flower of life
A daisy in the fields, a sparrow in the trees,
A mother’s joy, a father’s swallow.
As a child, you once wished to become a song
And in the end, you did.
From now on, your path grows difficult
You will learn what life is.
Terrifying events will cross your way,
Everything happening in this world will bear down upon you,
And you will grow weary trying to make sense of it all.
One day, the string of your kite snapped,
And the wind carried it far away.
Your breath caught in your chest from the sorrow
You stood there, gazing after it
That was the day you learned what it means to lose.
You will venture out into the streets,
And encounter so many people there.
Some things you see will bring you pain
Your heart will ache for the child collecting scraps of paper,
And for the people waiting at the bus stop.
People on the pier wait for someone to arrive
Just as you, too, once waited for your mother.
In that moment, you suddenly grew up
You decided, then and there, to teach the world how to love
To teach it to all of humanity.
English Translation by Mesut Şenol