Behold us here, antagonists. See how
Each angry look is like a poisoned dagger.
A world of difference lies between us now.
The quarrel is: whose share’s to be the bigger.
translated by John Willett
Month: October 2023
Life by Bertolt Brecht
Hoping to keep concealed throughout the fighting
While would-be rulers wrestled in the air
The frightened people look for holes to hide in
And watched their masters battling from down there.
translated by John Willett
from Love, Poetry: Firstly: XVII by Paul Eluard
With a single caress
I make you shine in all your brilliance.
translated by Stuart Kendall
from Love, Poetry: Firstly: XI by Paul Eluard
She doesn’t know how to set traps
she has her eyes on her beauty
so simple so simple to seduce
and her eyes enchain
and she plies them on me
and she throws the flying net of caresses
over herself.
translated by Stuart Kendall
from Love, Poetry. Firstly: XIII by Paul Eluard
Woman in love
with the secret behind your smile
the words of love completely bare
uncover your breasts and your neck
your hips and eyelids
uncover every caress
so that the kisses in your eyes
reveal you alone
entirely.
translated by Stuart Kendall
from Love, Poetry: Firstly: II by Paul Eluard
Her eyes are towers of light
under the face of her nudity.
On the transparent surface
returning thoughts
cancel deaf words.
She effaces every image
She bewilders love and its stubborn shadows
She loves—she loves to forget herself.
translated by Stuart Kendall
Everything Side By Side by Melih Cevdet Anday
A fish falls asleep, this suits the ocean
The seagulls perch cheek by jowl
Side by side seagulls don’t pass through phases
They’re all the same age, the same height
Filter the soil, see with your hands
Side by side the seeds of the day
Neither before or after
Neither before or after
They founded cities one on top of the other
Wrapped them in fables.
translated by Sidney Wade & Efe Murad
Merrily, Merrily, Life is But a Dream by Melih Cevdet Anday
The island ferry is a paddle-steamer.
Showy flags are draped everywhere.
Pastry-seller, coffee-maker, soda-hawker—
Merrily, Merrily, Life is But a Dream.
Muslim, Jew, Greek,
Sportsman, old man, consumptive.
Someone’s wig flies up and away, and someone’s skirt—
Merrily, Merrily, Life is But a Dream.
Blows away, the island wind blows away.
Makes you happy, makes you cross.
Who is occupying the luxury cabins?
Merrily, Merrily, Life is But a Dream.
translated by Sidney Wade & Efe Murad
The most beautiful woman, she was by Cemal Süreya
The most beautiful woman, she was,
She combed her hair, all of it pubic hair,
When she sat, she squatted,
A bloody woman, a horse of wind,
It kept occuring to me how deceptive she was.
Which of her parts most? Of course, her mouth.
Attuned to all the feelings,
An Alhambra of a mixture of kisses,
In the timeless sea of the sheets
Her tactile mouth went up and down.
Oh, my eyes, now,
Have begun a crying that keeps on going,
A woman’s shirt is shrouding me,
The blue of the day is on that
The rooster of the night is in that.
translated by Omer Kursat
Dying in a Turkish Bath by Cemal Süreya
Did you ever attend a public bath?
I did.
The candle near me blew out,
And I became blind.
The blue of the dome disappeared.
They relit the candle on the navel stone.
The marble was wiped clean.
I saw some of my face on it.
It was bad, something awful,
And I became blind.
I didn’t expect quite this from my face.
Did you ever sob
While covered in soap?
translated by Omer Kursat
Leonard Durso 