Author: zdunno03

In memory of Nazım Hikmet Ran…

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Another translation from the blog Forgotten Hopes of Turkish poetry. This time of Nazim Hikmet. Visit her blog for other translations.

Rukiye Uçar's avatarFORGOTTEN HOPES

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Even So Optimism

Brother

Send me books with happy endings

The plane lands on the ground safe and sound

The doctor ends the operation smiling

The blind child starts to see

The young boy is saved from execution

The lovers unite

Even a wedding is held for them

Drought meets water, too

And bread meets freedom

Send me books with happy endings

What they are telling us will come true

Eventually.

-Translated by Rukiye Uçar…

Yine De İyimserlik

kardeşim
sonu tatlıya bağlanan kitaplar yollayın bana
uçak sağ salim inebilsin meydana
doktor gülerek çıksın ameliyattan
kör çocuğun açılsın gözleri
delikanlı kurtarılsın kurşuna dizilirken
birbirine kavuşsun yavuklular
düğün dernek yapılsın hem de
susuzluk da suya kavuşsun
ekmek de hürriyete
kardeşim
sonu tatlıya bağlanan kitaplar yollayın bana
onların dediği çıkacak
eninde de sonunda da…
-Nazım Hikmet Ran…

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On The Matter Of Romeo And Juliet by Nazim Hikmet

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It’s no crime to be Romeo or Juliet;
it’s not a crime even to die for love.
What counts is whether you can be a Romeo or Juliet–
I mean, it’s all a question of your heart.

For instance, fighting at the barricades
or going off to explore the North Pole
or testing a new serum in your veins–
would it be a crime to die?

It’s no crime to be Romeo or Juliet;
it’s not a crime even to die for love.

You fall head over heels in love with the world,
but it doesn’t know you’re alive.
You don’t want to leave the world,
but it will leave you–
I mean, just because you love apples,
do apples have to love you back?
I mean, if Juliet stopped loving Romeo
–or if she’d never loved him–
would he be any less a Romeo?

It’s no crime to be Romeo or Juliet;
it’s not a crime even to die for love.

translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk

First Month: at Ch’ung-jang House by Li Shang-yin

/ zdunno03 / 2 Comments

Secret behind locks and double bars, covered with green moss.
In the deepest corridors, innermost chambers, pacing to and fro.
A presage that the wind will rise–the halo round the moon.
The season of cold dews still, the buds unopened.
A bar sweeps past the flap of the blind. Endless tossing and turning.
A mouse unsettles the cobweb on the window, startles with brief suspicions.
With the lamp at my back I talk alone to a fragrance still in the air,
And unawares, just as before, sing Rise in the Night and Come.

translated by A.C. Graham

untitled love poem by Li Shang-yin

/ zdunno03 / 5 Comments

Coming was an empty promise, you have gone, and left no footprints:
The moonlight slants above the roof, already the fifth watch sounds.
Dreams of remote partings, cries which cannot summon,
Hurrying to finish the letter, ink which will not thicken.
The light of the candle half encloses kingfishers threaded with gold,
The smell of musk comes faintly through embroidered water-lilies.
Young Liu complained that Fairy Hill is far.
Past Fairy Hill, range above range, ten thousand mountains rise.

translated by A.C. Graham