so here I am, coming to you
find for me a place on wings of soft winds
let water’s sparkling sounds flow beside us,
let laurels entwine our flanks . . .
let me wake on mornings in the softness of your iron arms
as a seed grows in the eyes of an olive tree
let me be yours
let the scent of the gum tree infuse our hair
let our living body walk towards birds
and find forgotten songs . . .
your smile is the branches of a flowering almond tree
let it snatch death from our hands.
I brought a ship to your door: let’s go together.
you were made for women of sensitive, long nights,
for long mornings
for fields of wheat, placid deer, for open roads . . .
drop me on your chest: let me listen to songs of the world
if we’re late, the quiet river of love will leave us—sulking—
and never come back again.
translated by George Messo
Leyla Şahin
In Love with the Wind by Leyla Şahin
alone, and alone before too
from his eyes a carnation clings on to the world
in the middle of that world he was alone.
his kite never once reached the clouds
in the middle of that world he was alone.
the sun never once warmed his heart
in all the winters there were he was alone.
he lived a timid, fearful life
alone, alone among voices.
in his vision and his pose he was alone
in his memories alone, he had no songs:
in the evening he was most alone . . .
translated by George Messo
Broken Windows by Leyla Şahin
we’re hopeful migrants
we pitch our tents in the open
now open your arms
a bird multiples in air
we’re a raised voice
we rise with our eyelashes wet
put your arms around me
it’s love that rears the day
our eyes and brows cast down
walk now through roses, sweat
(windows broken
you can’t take me away from sorrow
it’s only for you that I cry)
a bird multiples in air
my eyes overrun my eyes
I’d have been as mute as stone, but for you
translated by George Messo
Abz by Leyla Şahin
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
Leonard Durso 