My mother tongue will never die!

A speaker said: "This is the fate! This is the will of world history!
All languages will disappear. Only one language will remain in the world".

"You chatter-box, come on! From where have you got this rubbish?"
Navoi and Pushkin arose from their graves.

Angered and surprised, came up one by one
Dante, Schiller and Byron, Firdausi, Balzac, Tagore.

"Stop your sermon, brother! What you say will never come true!"
All said together: "My mother tongue will never die!"

"Hey, what a strange idea!" Sacred cup in hand,
Khayyam recited a rubai about the Farsi language.

Tears in his eyes, Beranger asked passionately:
"Do you mean the French language will die one day?"

Neruda and Lorca stood up along with Cervantes:
"Who dares assault our language with a sharp sword?"

Fizuli exclaimed, enraged: "The Azeri language will not wane like a flower!"
All said together: "My mother tongue will never die!

To make our languages many-colored like a rainbow,
We took pains for centuries, we suffered for thousands of years.

The efforts to make our languages sweet, were they all in vain?
If so, alas, there is no peace for us even in graves!"

"Faust" burst into flames, "Hamsah" took to fire.
One voice resounded all over the world, crossing mountains.

This voice will be heard for ever and will never be silenced.
The whole world says: "Never! My mother tongue will never die!"

The poem is a translation from the original Uzbek. It was made available for The Daily Star by Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman.