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

How much of a crowd I am
My deceased mum
My living uncle
My little sis never born
My bubbles in the heavens
My fear of the caverns
My rocks
My strata
My warm springs of love

How much of a crowd  I am
I’ve given everything a name
I’ve completed every sentence
I’ve sown seeds of the sun on the ground
And brushed the hair of the earth
I’ve sailed out to sea
I have the deed to the fruit and the fish and the flowers
What more is there left?
What is left?

translated  by Esra Çarşıbaşı & Jean Carpenter Efe

I covered the whole heaven with my hands
One star escaped me

I covered November on the calendar
One sunny day escaped me

I covered my eyes so the world disappeared
One blue escaped me

Translated by Esra Çarşıbaşı & Jean Carpenter Efe

Running along the seashore you were a child
The way you entered my dreams you were shimmering blond
How could you have fit the sun into your sand-pail
You smiled at me–not really at me but at the mountaintops

You were a child whatever you were you must have been beautiful
Were the heavens really in place before then
Then I saw the flying fish that went sailing through your hair
You were mornings you were evenings most of all the late afternoons

I ran a long way at your side
I ran you passed me by
There is love and there is death–the two for which no words suffice
One of these two must have been you

translated by Jean Carpenter Efe