Assyrian Quotes

“Why are you adrift, like a boat, in the midst of the river.

your thwarts in pieces, your mooring rope cut?

Your face covered, you cross the river of the Inner City.'

'How could I not be adrift, how could my mooring rope not be cut?

The day I bore the fruit, how happy I was,

happy was I, happy my husband.

The day of my going into labor, my face became darkened,

the day of my giving birth, my eyes became clouded.

With open hands I prayed to Bēlet-ilī:

'You too have borne a child, save my life!'

Hearing this, Bēlet-ilī veiled her face.

'You [. . .], why do you keep praying to me?'

[My husband, who loved me], uttered a cry,

['Why do you take from me] the wife in whom I rejoice?'

[] years on end,

[] . . . . . .

[] Inner City, . . . . you sounded a wail.

[All] those [many] days I was with my husband,

I lived with him who was my lover.

Death came creeping into my bedroom:

it drove me from my house,

it tore me from my husband,

it set my feet into a land of . . . .”
― Anonymous

“I may not have a country with boundaries, but my country is in me. My country is in my soul and in my heart. I am ASSYRIA." (The Crimson Field)”
― Rosie Malek-Yonan, Rosie Malek-Yonan's The Crimson Field

“Iraq's liberation has become the oppression of Assyrians." (Rosie Malek-Yonan at United States Congress)”
― Rosie Malek-Yonan, Rosie Malek-Yonan's The Crimson Field