If stars catch sight of your beauty in me
They will fall into my inmost sea one by one
And sunlight will engulf me in such splendor
You will come to me
translared by Talat S. Halman
Author: zdunno03
A Story For The 4th Of July
Once upon a time there was a shepherd boy, a Kurd living in Turkey. His family owned live stock and made feta cheese and Greek yogurt which they sold to support themselves. It was a semi-nomadic life, moving the cows between Summer and Winter pastures. Our shepherd boy doesn’t know his exact birthday as he was born while the family was on the move to warm weather mountain pastures.
His family and he himself were well aware of Turkish oppression of the Kurds. So when he was old enough his father suggested he go to study and learn to speak English in America.
Our shepherd, Hamdi Ulukaya came to the U.S. in 1994, studied English and took a few business courses as well. He first attended Adelphi College on Long Island and then transferred to the State University of New York in upstate Albany.
He ended up taking a job…
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Did I Fall in Love? by Orhan Veli Kanık
Was I going to have such thoughts too
And spend sleepless nights
And go through quiet spells?
And never miss
My favoriye salad?
Were things going to come to this?
translated by Talat S. Halman
To Keep Busy by Orhan Veli Kanık
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
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
Leonard Durso 