The Messenger

by Heijan (Turkish original - Bağcılar, Turkey)by David Selim Sayers and Evrim Emir-Sayers (English translation - Paris, France)

THIS translation is of the song “Elçi” by the Kurdish-Turkish rapper Heijan (b. 1994). You can hear it performed by Heijan himself at this link.

I shouldered my longing and walkedEverything I left behindMy past, full of illegal bindsAbout which I just cannot talk

Their biases, they wore me outMy wrists felt the grip of their cuffsMy woes I told no one aboutAs I stood before court, sleepless and rough

They wanted me to shut upAs the murders kept piling upThey told me to simply look onThey deserve every word I pile on

And I?I could have been someone illegalCarried that gun like an angel of deathWasted them all without wasting a wordTen years in the hole without drawing a breath

Raised in the ghetto with blood on my handsKids walk behind me, my life in my handsWalk down this path full of hope, take a stand!There is a way, there is a plan

They can’t understandThey can’t know us, from where we cameThey can’t know whom we touched with our flameFrom whom we ignited and whom we inflamed

So tell us your tale and don’t worryThe games that they play can’t deter meIf I need to be dead, let them shoot meEven a bullet in the head can’t mute me

I see them piling up at my gateThere’s no way to outrun their gazeTheir eyes full of scorn and hateTheir bias that I still can’t break

I walk round the borough in silenceFor no reason, the cops fall upon meAs they search me, I can feel their violenceThey only care about what I have on me

Talk about all that your eyes seeThe wheelings and dealings aboutOr just shut your eyes and get outAfter all, isn’t all as it should be?

Their biases cut me like knivesAll of my values I’ve lostAs poverty squeezed out my lifeI never counted the cost

The problem? My borough, my everythingIt made me and I wrote its creedI never bowed down to anyone, get it?I’m a messenger roaming the streets

The problem? My borough, my everythingIt made me and I wrote its creedI never bowed down to anyone, get it?I’m a messenger roaming the streets

This is my life, my path, barbed wire to all my sidesWhen no one’s around, tears fill my eyes while everybody smiles