Name of the lullaby: Berxolekem:
Written in Kurdish by Soraya Fallah
Translation to English by Cklara Moradian
Hey lay hey lay hey laya
your mother’s sweet baby
why is sleep not coming to you?
Sleep darling, it’s late
The world is dim and silent
I’m confined in this solitude
Lay Lay your mother’s sweet baby
The child of my furious nation
You’re my hope for existence
Hey laya laya laya
The hope of your mother’s being
Why is Kurdish existence this manner?
Lay lay sapling of my fate
The companion of hardship
The journey to the peek is distant
The process is crimson blood
Hey laya laya laya
Your mother can not raise her voice
Tears are choking in her throat
Why is Kurdish existence this manner?
(Speaking to the child)…
Lay lay
a drop of Sirvan (river running between Iran and Iraq border)
Home wrecked and forced into mountains
We were slaughtered by the hundreds
We were tied and imprisoned
We’ve been denied our tongue and land
We’ve been annihilated in the snow
Hey laya lay laya
The flower of your mother’s garden
Tell me why don’t you sleep
But
(singing again)
Life will not always remain this way
There will come a day when
a thousand flaming candles will burn,
the strong sun rays in the meadows will shine
the sound of the footsteps of the dawn will be heard
in anticipation of the people’s celebration
sleep my tiny baby
our future is this way
awake tomorrow in laughter
Rights of human will triumph one day
