Another translation of a major Turkish writer by Rukiye Uçar on FORGOTTEN HOPES.
-Youth is such a thing-
I quiver deep inside with a voice every day,
Every time the clock chimes, repeatedly:
“What have you done of your field, where is the harvest?
Will you proceed into the night with nothing in your hands?
Just think! You are halfway through your life.
Youth is such a thing that comes and goes;
And after that you are left out on a limb;
You run from one window to another.”
Oh those days I could not know the value of,
The bunch of roses I threw away without smelling,
The fountain whose water I wasted,
The blowing wind I could not set sail against!
Yet, the waters tend to flow to the west,
The sound of the nightingale on the tree has changed
Shadows are settling on my window;
Your time is coming, oh memories.
(Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, Gençlik Böyledir İşte, Varlık, July 1, 1937)
-Translated by Rukiye Uçar…
Leonard Durso 