The mists rise over
The still pools at Asuka.
Memory does not
Pass away so easily.

Asuka gawa
Kawa yodo sarazu
Tatsu kiri no
Omoi sugu beki
Koi ni aranaku ni

translated by Kenneth Rexroth

Hold yourself, don't show it brother,
I shall not see your tears mother,
Why are you lost in thought beautiful typewriter?
Leave me alone little vendor,
What could I even do for you
While my sorrows are too many to tell?

There is so much darkness around
Everyone's night is enough for themselves. 
-Translated by R.U.

Tut kendini, belli etme kardeşim, 
Görmeyeyim gözyaşını valide, 
Ne dalarsın öyle güzel daktilo, 
Beni rahat bırak küçük satıcı, 
Ne gelir ki elimden sizin için? 
Benim de dertlerim bitmez söylesem! 

O kadar çok ki etrafta karanlık. 
Herkesin gecesi kendine yeter.
-Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı...

I wish I were close
To you as the wet skirt of
A salt girl to her body.
I think of you always.

translated by Kenneth Rexroth

Look! I am but a road to you
The road you tread every morning
I am a tree to you, the acacia
In whose shadow you wait for a bus.

Tell me who you are
Let me write at the corners of streets
I’ve lost myself in your town
Your name is my street.

Tell me where your house is
Do you like afternoons or evenings?
Let me knock on your door
Unlock and show me the secret garden.

Give me the padlock of your eyes
Let me close us off from the world
Look, this is my key
Unlock yourself, there is love about to emerge
Please do not hide it.

translated by Ahu Dereli & Jean Carpenter Efe

There’s no color
called love
in this world,
yet how thoroughly
it has dyed my heart

translated by Hiroaki Sato

Morning, six o’clock.
I opened the door of the day and stepped in–
a taste of young blue greeted me in the window,
the lines on my forehead remained in the mirror from yesterday,
and behind me a woman’s voice came softer than peach fuzz
and, on the radio, news from my country,
and now, my greed filling and overflowing,
I’ll run from tree to tree in the orchard of the hours,
and the sun will set, my love,
and I hope that beyond the night
the taste of a new blue will await me, I hope.

translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk

What shall I do, Waves?
Waves, what shall I do?
Love is unmoved like the shore.
What shall I do, Waves?
What shall I do?

it is so simple
yet not as simple as all that
for love is forgetting
all that happened before
letting new flowers grow
in what’s left of a heart
worn and fearful
of the light of day
and expecting nothing
in return