Nâzım Hikmet's best-loved lines (with the poem they come from)
The top 3 according to 3 votes from people: To live like a tree, single and free, and like a forest, in brotherhood: this longing is ours. · If I don't burn, if you don't burn, if we don't burn, how will darkness come out into the light? · Time stands within me like a fragrant red rose.. (Updated Apr 27, 2026.)
"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.
Automatically translated (original in Türkçe). See the original
Top 13
-
1
To live like a tree, single and free, and like a forest, in brotherhood: this longing is ours.
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?
From the poem "The Air Is Heavy as Lead".
-
3
Time stands within me like a fragrant red rose.
From the poem "To Vera".
-
4
Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness, like a squirrel, for example.
From the poem "On Living".
-
5
I am forbidden to see the sky above my head.
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.
From the poem "Straw-Blond".
-
7
People have no wings; their wings are in their hearts.
From the poem "Four Doves".
-
8
Since I was thrown inside, the earth has gone around the sun ten times.
From the poem "Since I Was Thrown Inside".
-
9
And the rest, my ten years inside for example, is just idle talk.
From the poem "Since I Was Thrown Inside".
-
10
In the twentieth century, grief lasts a year at most.
From the poem "Letter to My Wife".
-
11
Just as long as the jewel beneath your left breast does not go dark!
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.
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.
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first!