Author: zdunno03

My Youth Is All Gone by Orhan Veli Kanık

/ zdunno03 / 1 Comment

Where was this melancholy in those days?
This crying inside,
Singing of faraway things?
I raised hell
Every day then;
To a dance today, to the movies tomorrow,
If I didn’t like it, to a cafe;
If I didn’t like that either, to the park;
I embellished my lover
In poems,
I took her to picnics,
A book of poems on our laps;
Where, where,
Where was this melancholy in those days?

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

For Free by Orhan Veli Kanık

/ zdunno03 / 3 Comments

We are living for free;
The air is for free, the clouds are for free.
Hills and dales are for free;
Rain and mud are for free;
The outside of cars,
The entrance to movie houses,
The store windows are for free;
It is not the same as bread and cheese,
But salt water is for free;
Freedom will cost you your life,
But slavery is for free;
We are living for free,
For free.

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

eating Chinese food in Istanbul: for Rita Wu

/ zdunno03 / 6 Comments

so far
it’s pretty far
from what I call
Chinese food
and Rita,
if you think take-out in NY
is junk Chinese food
wait till you try what’s here
it’s almost as bad
as that place outside Denver
remember?
the Silk Road started
or ended here
depending on one’s perspective
but Chinese food
has yet to arrive

on the shore 3

/ zdunno03 / 3 Comments

hopscotch and football
barbecues on miniature grills
wood smoke in the eyes
kebab in the air
a young man dives into the water
drums beat out a rhythm
hands clap
a young girl dances
simits and cay
and I get the last bench left
in the shade
a whole neighborhood is here
along with portable toilets
spring on parade
in ancient Balat

The Mermaid by Orhan Veli Kanik

/ zdunno03 / 3 Comments

She must just have left the sea.
Her hair and lips
Smelled of the sea till the morning.
Her rising and falling breast was like the sea.

I knew she was poor–
But you can’t talk of poverty all the time.
Gently, next to my ear
She sang songs of love.

Who knows what she has learned and experienced
In her life fighting the sea.
Patching fish nets, casting fish nets, gathering fish nets.
Making tackles, dropping out baits cleaning boats.
To remind me of spiny fish
Her hands touched my hands.

That night I saw, I saw it in her eyes;
How lovely the sea has risen in the open sea.
Her hair taught me about waves;
I tossed and tossed around dreams.

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat