Author: zdunno03

North Star by Ferit Edgü

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O sea–Please leave me in peace o sea
Summon me no more; without a sail
A poor boat am I, left alone, there’s now just me
Forgotten here on the sands

O sea–Share your secret with me
O north star, northwest wind, the storms
I who am a weary Kirghiz
Caught in the saddle of my horse
The whole winter long

O sea–Wreck me upon a rocky shore of yours, remote
Bury me in the waters so that this silent
Life of sailing finds an end
Because separated from you
I have naught but my name–No, say no more, shh

Let it be, let no one ever remember my name

translated by Jean Carpenter Efe

A Dream Far Away by Güven Turan

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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 petrifies

To become so atttached to a  dream
To expand the saddening wastes of the city
Even when her picture has decayed on the table

Before a new thunderstorm arises
One should pull the boat ashore

translated by Suat Karantay

Night by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı

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Kandilli floated upon sleep–
We trailed the moonlight on the deep

We took a shining silver track
And spoke no word of turning back

Phantom trees on the dreaming crest
Pensive slopes where waters rest

The season’s end was such a time
The distant note of a hidden chime

We passed and vanished far away
Ere the dream was lost at break of day

translated by Bernard Lewis

Do Me That Love by Kenneth Patchen

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Do me that love
As a tree, tree
Where birds and wind
Sing though they know
How real night is
And no one can
Go on for long
In any way
Do me that love

Do me that love
As the rain, rain
That has voices
In it, the greats’
And fools’, poor dead
From old weathers–
Lives considered
And rejected
As ours will be.
The rain comes down
And flowers grow
On the graves of
Our enemies
Do me that love