The beautiful women thought
The love poems I wrote
Were about them.
And I always suffered
Knowing that I wrote them
To keep busy.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
Month: June 2017
All Of A Sudden by Orhan Veli Kanik
Everything happened all of a sudden.
All of a sudden daylight beat down on the earth;
There was the sky all of a sudden;
All of a sudden steam began to rise from the soil.
There were tendrils all of a sudden, buds all of a sudden.
And there were fruits all of a sudden.
All of a sudden,
All of a sudden,
Girls all of a sudden, boys all of a sudden.
Roads, moors, cats, people. . .
And there was love all of a sudden,
Happiness all of a sudden.
translated by Anil Mericelli
A Dream Far Away by Güven Turan
On the plains behind the cliff
An unsheltering wind
Uproots the shrubs
Gives way to cane beds
Even in mid summer
Seagulls
Flee southward to hunt
Without planting a tree
I can leave my body and go
Near one of the traps I’ve set
On the third day the moss hides
Within forty days the ice petrıfies
To become so attached to a dream
To expand the saddening wastes of the city
Even when her picture has decayed on my table
Before a new thunderstorm arises
One should pull the boat ashore
translated by Suat Karantay
A City and He Himself by Güven Turan
To dream of the sea
Even when looking at the sea
This is what he has long been doing
And imagining he is in a city
With trams along its streets
On yellow cut-stone edifices
Darkening iron balconies
The sound of pigeons
Pigeon droppings on the windows
But these are dreams
Neither opposite him nor
Anywhere
translated by Suat Karantay
Don’t Ask by Turgay Fişekçi
Don’t ask me who I am
Whence I came from
Which days the red clouds
In my eyes are from, don’t ask.
Inexplicable things
May indeed have occurred in the days begone
I may have eaten the grapes
I stole from the vineyards
Leaning against the bosom of the blue sky.
Don’t ask me who I am
What my job is, how old I am
Just say “Do you love me?”
And ask no more.
translated by Gül Erçetin & Suat Karantay
Billy Wilder on being Billy Wilder
the call of the wild
he sits
intently listening
the call of the wild
feral cats
crying for food
attention
envying him
his comfort
from the storms
the cold
the night
and he
wondering
what he’s lost
of his nature
to live
beholding
to no man
just his own wits
himself
and I
understanding
both
Rain Cloud by Mehmet Yaşın
Farewell, my sweet
I’m on my way
shedding tears, but silently.
Don’t be sorry
your room shall retain not a tear or trace
of myself
small black rain cloud that I am
I’ll have been erased.
translated by Suat Karantay
Gather Some Sun for Me (dedicated to Karacaoğlan) by Ülkü Tamer
Dawn-wind, go to the mountains
Gather some sun for me
Send messages in all four directions
Gather some sun for me
From amongst the hopes
From the black of eyelashes
From the wound of the knife in the breast
Gather some sun for me
From summer, winter and spring
From the four walls of the jails
From loves at full gallop
Gather some sun for me
Dawn-wind, from the eye of the beloved
From the trace of the flying bird
From the skies of the night
Gather some sun for me
translated by Osman Kaytan & Jean Carpenter Efe
Balloons by Şavkar Altınel
On cloudless nights
right before darkness falls
big balloons around here
sometimes appear in the sky;
like pears upside down
they drift away slowly
with flames from their burners
occasionally flaring.
And you imagine
getting on one and rising up high;
the ropes moved by the wind
the basket swinging in empty space
and beneath a life’s
familiar landscapes:
fields of hope, hills of love
darkened woods
where dreams come to an end
a few bitter towns
not removed from memory yet
and roads of regret
stretching away bending and curling
all are small, even, remote
and now almost forgotten
as the day fades slowly away.
translated by Didem Ünlü & Suat Karantay
Leonard Durso 