It makes me blue getting a letter,
Makes me blue drinking gin,
Makes me blue setting out on a trip,
I’ve no idea what will come of it.
When they sing the folk song “My Kazim”
In Üsküdar
It makes me blue.

translated by George Messo

Since I always think of her
In my bed at night,
While I love her still
I’ll love my bed too.

translated by George Messo

From where it lies, a cat raises its head as if to speak,
opens its mouth, but not a word comes out,
then falls again into sleep to speak in the dream.

translated by Sidney Wade & Efe Murad

What a race this is, long, introverted,
In secret or openly it lasts a lifetime.
Kith and kin, wife and children, we’re all lined up.
The minute hand nears the hour. Time moves
And wins, the Hare with the split lip sleeps,
In the storybooks he runs like lightning.

translated by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane

I love beautiful women,
I love working women too;
Beautiful working women
I love more.

translated by George Messo

I’d not heard a sound
Of pigeons and doves at the window.
Had that urge to travel
Stirred again in me?
What of that seaweed smell,
The screech of seagulls in the air.
What is it?
A journey, of course, a journey.

translated by George Messo

Where was this melancholy then,
Crying so much,
Drifting off into song,
Partying seven days a week,
Today music, tomorrow a film,
The Family Garden café, you hating it,
You should have gone to the park,
My girl, known to everyone,
My girl,
Who I’m crazy about,
Hanging on her every word,
We made a palace of a hayloft.
Where,
Where,
Where was this melancholy then.

translated by George Messo

I should have been
Have been
A fish
In a bottle
Of booze.

Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat