Letter To My Wife

Read 'Letter To My Wife' by 'Nazim Hikmet' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

Letter To My Wife by Nazim Hikmet

 11-11-1933
 Bursa Prison
My one and only!
Your last letter says:
"My head is throbbing,
 my heart is stunned!"
You say:
"If they hang you,
 if I lose you,
 I'll die!"
You'll live, my dear--
my memory will vanish like black smoke in the wind.
Of course you'll live, red-haired lady of my heart:
in the twentieth century
 grief lasts
 at most a year.

Death--
a body swinging from a rope.
My heart
 can't accept such a death.
But
you can bet
 if some poor gypsy's hairy black
 spidery hand
 slips a noose
 around my neck,
they'll look in vain for fear
 in Nazim's
 blue eyes!
In the twilight of my last morning
I
will see my friends and you,
and I'll go
to my grave
 regretting nothing but an unfinished song...
My wife!
Good-hearted,
golden,
eyes sweeter than honey--my bee!
Why did I write you
 they want to hang me?
The trial has hardly begun,
and they don't just pluck a man's head
 like a turnip.
Look, forget all this.
If you have any money,
 buy me some flannel underwear:
my sciatica is acting up again.
And don't forget,
a prisoner's wife
 must always think good thoughts.

Form: Free verse

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