I woke, this meant a love in the world
–Your voice was like forsaking a rose.
I was black, like paper on all sorts of life
Each day my name was on those seas, could you see
For a millennium I was an M sound in Lower Egypt.

I struck at loves, didn’t anyone notice
For a millennium I unfurled you in my loneliness.
Whenever my name came up in your bright light
. . . . .This meant a love in the world.

In Egypt once upon a time solitude was lovely
It was a brave new sky one could cross with you
When I glanced, it grew like a lily in my memory
Now it’s a shadow that grows tall in my meadows
This is the way I woke which wasn’t really waking
. . . . .This meant a love in the world.

translated by Talat S…

-April
It is something impossible
To write a poem
If you are in love;
And not to write
If the month is April.

-Desires and memories
Desires are different
Memories are different,
In a city where no sun rises
Tell me, how can one live?

-Insects
Don’t think,
Desire only!
Look, insects are doing the same.

-Invitation
I am waiting
Come in such a weather that
It will not be possible to give up.
-Translated by Rukiye Uçar

Original version in Turkish:

-Nisan
İmkansız şey
Şiir yazmak,
Aşıksan eğer;
Ve yazmamak,
Aylardan nisansa.

-Arzular ve Hâtıralar
Arzular başka şey,
Hâtıralar başka.
Güneşi görmeyen şehirde,
Söyle, nasıl yaşanır?

-Böcekler
Düşünme,
Arzu et sade!
Bak, böcekler de öyle yapıyor.

-Dâvet
Bekliyorum
Öyle bir havada gel ki,
Vazgeçmek mümkün olmasın.
-Orhan Veli Kanık

he tries not to drink
but those shadows will haunt him
and the glass refills
ice bumping shoulders again
the night never seems to end

 -A Flower Without a Name- If my eyes are sparkling like a flower without a name exhibiting its color to the world for the first time my beloved it is when you tell me 'you are a poet'. I'm writing this poem only for you do not read it like a poem if you wish as I will be rewriting it every year with the joy of a bird flying high up when the cold days arrive after travelling over miles getting a taste of the south And I will write In every era and every age In a language that is unique to love -Translated by Rukiye Uçar... -Original Version in Turkish: Adsız Çiçek Rengini dünyaya ilk defa sunan Adsız bir çiçek gibi parlıyorsa gözlerim Sevgilim Bana 'sen bir şairsin' dediğin zaman. Yalnız sana yazıyorum bu şiiri İstersen bir şiir gibi okuma Çünkü her yıl yeniden yazacağım onu Soğuklar…

Thoughts of you unending
here in Ch’ang-an,

crickets where the well mirrors year-end golds cry out
autumn, and under a thin frost, mats look cold, ice-cold.

My lone lamp dark, thoughts thickening, I raise blinds
and gaze at the moon. It renders the deepest lament

empty. But you’re lovely as a blossom born of cloud,

skies opening away all bottomless azure above, clear
water all billows and swelling waves below. Skies endless

for a spirit in sad flight, the road over hard passes
sheer distance, I’ll never reach you, even in dreams,

my ruins of the heart,
thoughts of you unending.

translated by David Hinton