a plate of beans
marinated sundried tomatoes
a glass of wine
all to ease one
in the night
moving steadily
toward sleep
Month: August 2018
You’re by Nazım Hikmet
You’re my bondage and my freedom,
my flesh burning like a naked summer night,
you’re my country.
Hazel eyes marbled green,
you’re awesome, beautiful, and brave,
you’re my desire always just out of reach.
translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk
untitled poem by Nazim Hikmet
Snow closed the road
you weren’t there
kneeling and facing you
I gazed at your face
with my eyes closed.
Ships won’t sail, planes won’t fly
you weren’t there
across from you I was leaning on the wall
I spoke and spoke and spoke
without opening my mouth.
You weren’t there
I touched you with my hands
my hands were on your face.
translated by Talat S. Halman
I Wrote a Letter to Munevver Saying by Nazım Hikmet
The trees are still standing, the old benches dead and gone.
“Boris Park” is now “Freedom Park.”
Under the chestnet I just thought of you
and you alone–I mean Memet,
just you and Memet, I mean my country. . .
translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk
from lines by Po Chü-i: only memories
a picture
between the pages
of a book
read long ago
when your presence
was near
but now
only memories
and a pain
stabbing my heart
Aboard a Boat, Reading Yüan Chen’s Poems by Po Chü-i
I pick up your scroll of poems, read in front of the lamp;
the poems are ended, the lamp gutters, the sky not yet light.
My eyes hurt, I put out the lamp, go on sitting in the dark;
a sound of waves blown up by head winds, sloshing against the boat.
translated by Burton Watson
“Time is never wasted if you remember to bring along something to read.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“Time is never wasted if you remember to bring along something to read.”
5:15am, Moda, Istanbul
there it is
the call to prayer
and being up
as usual
I answer
They Say You’re Staying in a Mountain Temple by Tu Fu: written for his younger brother who he has not seen for over three years
They say you’re staying in a mountain temple,
In Hang-chou–or is it Yüeh-chou?
In the wind and grime of war, how long since we parted!
At Chiang-han, bright autumns waste away.
While my shadow rests by monkey-loud trees,
my soul whirls off to where shell-born towers rise.
Next year on floods of spring I’ll go downriver,
to the white clouds at the end of the east I’ll look for you!
translated by Burton Watson
“If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody’s supposed to respect you?”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody’s supposed to respect you?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiqER1Iku6Q
Leonard Durso 