I found it in the cellar of a caravanserai
Under a copper lamp,
An ancient handwritten manuscript of the Isagoge,
Perhaps dating from the Seljuk Empire,
Wine stains on every page.
I don’t know whether it was the author or a reader,
But right at the end, in a secret place,
He added these frightentng words:
The sky is our brain’s membrane,
Birds and clouds wander around in it.
20th Century Turkish poetry
A Winter Night by Oktay Rıfat
A winter night
Came to my room
And sat crosslegged on the sofa
Drank my coffee
Looked at the fire in the stove
Then went as it came.
translatged by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
Bar by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
A Rose
offers itself
a coral wine glass
in
the bars
of time
***sorry but could not find the name of the translator
untitled poem by Ahmet Haşim
A river of fire
between your soul and mine
mine unburdened itself
of this love’s impossible wound
As this glitter reflected on her
I ran away from that look, that lip
I looked at her silently, from far,
as this river reflected on her . . .
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
Remembering Ahmet Haşım by Oktay Rıfat
The sun in mist;
A wild duck fallen from a cloud
Maybe a young great-crested grebe,
On its back a fine blood streak, perhaps
The color of water, perhaps of loneliness,
Head drooping, wet, it floats. A few feathers
Left in the silence, something like evening.
Shore and sky, twinned one under the other.
It struck water, turbid, unclear,
The rickety quay, remnants here and there,
Lake-birds hanging their heads in thought.
translated by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
Bread and Stars by Oktay Rıfat
Bread on my knee
Stars in the distance far in the distance
I’m eating bread and looking at the stars
I’m so intensely lost in thought
That by mistake I eat
A star instead of bread
translated by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
Stars by Oktay Rıfat
A notebook by the book
A glass by the notebook
A child by the glass
A cat by the child
And stars stars in the distance
translated by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
View by Oktay Rıfat
A small lavender flower
A golden bee
Poppies without end
At this moment when
We love without thinking
Suddenly the sky begins
translated b y Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
A Rough Pillow by Oktay Rıfat
Where were we? Here were we?—Now it’s impossible to tell.
It was a rough pillow we shared!
It was us or perhaps someone else who was like us,
The fruit of our love, the immortal child.
Soaking wet from the rain of those dreams,
Our coming smeared with sticky blood
Will never go out of my mind,
The gentle pulling out like swimming
In the clear sunny waters of the days,
Turning into ourselves from our mother’s womb,
That first scream, that first blue, that first breath of air.
translated by Ruth Christie & Richard McKane
Abraham by Asaf Halet Çelebi
Abraham
Topple the idols inside me
With the ax you hold
Who is the one
replacing the broken idols with new ones?
The sun shattered my icehouse
Those mighty blocks have fallen
Necks of idols are broken
Abraham
Who is the one
putting the sun in my house?
Nebuchadnezzar made the idols
of the beauties wandering in the hanging gardens
I am the one cuddles those timeless gardens
Beauties stayed with me
Abraham
Who is the one
breaking my head
seeing it as an idol?
translated by Burak Tıraş
