# Nâzım Hikmet's best-loved lines (with the poem they come from)

"To live like a tree, single and free", "If I don't burn, if you don't burn..." and "I am forbidden to see the sky above my head": the most quoted lines of Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet, with the poem each one comes from.

- 3 votes · 13 items
- Apr 27, 2026 · ahmet.ankara
- https://even.best/en/l/5111/naz%C4%B1m-hikmet-s-best-loved-lines-with-the-poem-they-come-from

## Top 13

1. **To live like a tree, single and free, and like a forest, in brotherhood: this longing is ours.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From the poem "Invitation".
2. **If I don't burn, if you don't burn, if we don't burn, how will darkness come out into the light?** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From the poem "The Air Is Heavy as Lead".
3. **Time stands within me like a fragrant red rose.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From the poem "To Vera".
4. **Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness, like a squirrel, for example.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "On Living".
5. **I am forbidden to see the sky above my head.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Letters from a Man in Solitary".
6. **There are two things only death makes us forget: our mother's face and the face of our city.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Straw-Blond".
7. **People have no wings; their wings are in their hearts.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Four Doves".
8. **Since I was thrown inside, the earth has gone around the sun ten times.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Since I Was Thrown Inside".
9. **And the rest, my ten years inside for example, is just idle talk.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Since I Was Thrown Inside".
10. **In the twentieth century, grief lasts a year at most.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Letter to My Wife".
11. **Just as long as the jewel beneath your left breast does not go dark!** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison".
12. **I love my country: I swung on its plane trees, I lay in its prisons.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Traitor to the Homeland".
13. **Mathematics, cybernetics, physics, music: in the end, all of these are needed only so that people learn to read and understand poetry.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Vera Tulyakova Hikmet, Nazım'la Söyleşi (1989), p. 23.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.