20th Century Turkish poetry

See what happens by Orhan Veli Kanık

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See what happens when you don’t hear
The pistachio splitting apart on the branch,
Just see what happens to you.
See what happens, if you don’t hear this rain
Or the tolling bell or the  man talking,
See what happens if you don’t smell the seaweed
Or the lobster, the shrimp,
Blowing in wind from the sea. . .

translated by George Messo

untitled poem by Nazım Hikmet

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All the things I’ve written about us are untrue
they’re not what happened between us but what I wanted to see happen
those were my longings hanging from your unreachable branches
and my thirst pulled out of the well of my dreams
they were pictures I drew on beams of light.

Not all of what I wrote about us is true
Your beauty
that is to say a fruit basket or a picnic in the meadow
my being without you
that is my being the last streetlamp at the last corner of the city
the way I’m jealous of you
which means my running blindfolded among trains at night
my happiness
so to say the sun-drenched river which breaks its banks and overflows.
Whatever I’ve written about us is all lies
whatever I’ve written about us is all true.

translated by Talat S. Halman

River by Güngör Tekçe

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A meadow
And a river
There was someone
I forget

Through the
River straight towards me
Surging steadily onward
My feet planted on the earth
I was soon overwhelmed

Was it a thousand years ago
Or was it only yesterday
So many dead
Who’d grasped at deadwood and at dregs
Was it a Monday or was it a Wednesday
Whirled and swirled into the depths
So many loves
So many oaths
Washed clean and clear
Was it ten o’clock or was it twelve
With shriek upon shriek the waterfowl
Had bound the drawstrings of the night
They were basking in the sun
A summer with mascara smeared
Releasing a breath through a reed on the shore
Who was it stepping through the passing waters
Ws it I
Was there someone else
I forget

translated by Jean Carpenter Efe

Abz by Leyla Şahin

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I come through the rains
my name, that of an old sea
before the earth was born
I swayed in the depths for thousands of years

I come through the winds
my name that of an old storm
slowly opening the velvet curtains
I escape to the meadows, in my eyes
a child’s mind

I come through the mountains
one half of my face in the mist
the other wandering in the woods
as joyful as a bird ready to migrate
I bring the spring with me

I come through the paths
path: the first ABC of my life
A: alienation, B: being together
M: meeting, Z: beyond all boundaries

I grasp an island of loneliness and come

love: the oldest scar on my face,
I come with my wounds.

translated by Ahu Dereli & Jean Carpenter Efe

Before the Mountain Beyond the Mountain by Ferit Edgü

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My belief amounts to nothing–theirs to quite something
Down the mountain come the deer–I look at the deer
They at the mountain

I believe in scarcely a single thing, if anything in mankind
They trust in nearly everything, but never humankind

They look at the mountain–while I look beyond it

The deer go down the mountainside
Beyond the mountain

translated by Jean Carpenter Efe

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