Abstract
Recep Maraşli, now 41 years old, is one of the most eminent and scholarly activists for the Kurdish cause. He was first imprisoned at the age of 16 for his newspaper articles; he subsequently became publisher of the periodical Komal , which focuses on the Turkish Kurdish community. In 1982 he was sentenced to 36 years' imprisonment, but was released in 1991 on condition that he did not 'reoffend'; he has since been rearrested. He is at present on trial for alleged membership of PRK-Rizgari, a pro-Kurdish group. These two poems are written in Turkish, though Maraşli is Kurdish.