By Dr. Adnan Bozan

Lamis…
O oak tree of my life, defying the raging winds,
your roots strike deep into the rock of the soul,
your branches embrace the lofty clouds,
as if you were the earth’s testament to the sky,
as if you were the call that cannot be broken.

Lamis…
O green Afrini olive tree,
your leaves are hope that never grows old.
You resist death and tyrants,
as if you were the earth’s final prayer,
and freedom’s very first hymn.

Lamis…
O lofty palm in a thirsty desert,
you challenge the winter’s cold and the blaze of summer,
bearing love as fruit upon the ashes,
stretching your shade over the weary,
as if you were the prophecy of patience that never betrays.

Lamis…
O Kobani of the soul,
when you walk upon the ruins of cities,
you light the path with a smile from the remnants of dreams,
returning to the sea its first salt,
and to the sky its childhood blue.

I read you as the birth of Ishtar in Erbil,
a light rising from the womb of myth,
an endless poem,
a song that taught the birds to refuse their cages,
and bequeathed the mountains the meaning of pride.

Lamis…
O flower sprouting from the rocks of the citadel,
you guard memory from oblivion,
and plant a poem in every stone,
as if you were the ancient promise that never died,
as if you were the dawn no night could extinguish.

Lamis…
You are water when the fields grow dry,
you are bread when hunger lingers,
you are the poem that teaches me
that love is resistance,
and patience a wing
that carries us above the ruins.

Lamis…
O olive, O palm, O oak,
O wound of the earth and its healing,
O language of dawn born from the womb of night,
O stretch of dream from Afrin to Kobani,
from the mountains of Erbil to the deserts of the Euphrates.

I write you as the rain writes its testament to the soil,
I write you as the wind writes its anthem to the trees,
I write you as the poet writes his name
upon a rock that refuses to be defeated.

Lamis…
You are the poem of a lifetime,
the song of resistance.
You are the homeland rising from its ashes
to tell the tyrants:
Here is my land,
here is my life,
and here is the love that cannot be defeated.