I should not have waited.
It would have been better
To have slept and dreamed,
Than to have watched night pass,
And this slow moon sink.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
love poem
People Hide Their Love by Wu-ti
Who says
That it’s by my desire,
This separation, this living so far from you?
My dress still smells of the lavender you gave:
My hand still holds the letter that you sent.
Round my waist I wear a double sash:
I dream that it binds us both with a same-heart knot.
Did not you know that people hide their love,
Like the flower that seems too precious to be picked?
translated by Arthur Waley
for Robert Burns’ birthday
We’ll gently walk, and sweetly talk,
While the silent moon shines clearly;
I’ll clasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I lo’e thee dearly;
Not vernal show’rs to budding flow’rs,
Not Autumn to the farmer,
So dear can be, as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely Charmer!
fragment 6 from Sappho
you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing
translated by Anne Carson
fragment 5 from Sappho
and know this
whatever you
I shall love
translated by Anne Carson
Empty Streets by Özdemir İnce
I look at you
and my teeth are set on edge as if I’ve eaten green plums,
dawn’s peacock spreads open its tail.
I look at you
and our glances meet like two brooks,
the voice lilies of the streets blossom.
translated by Talat S. Halman
I Shut My Eyes Tight by Nazım Hikmet
I shut my eyes tight:
you are there in the dark,
lying on your back in the darkness,
your forehead and wrists are a golden triangle in the dark.
My darling, you are inside my eyelids that are closed,
there are songs inside my closed eyelids.
Now everything starts with you in there.
Now, nothing remains there that was mine before you
and nothing that doesn’t belong to you.
translated by Talat S. Halman
untitled love poem by Nazım Hikmet
Snow closed the road
you weren’t there
kneeling and facing you
I gazed at your face
with my eyes closed.
Ships won’t sail, planes won’t fly
you weren’t there
across from you I was leaning on the wall
I spoke and spoke and spoke
without opening my mouth.
You weren’t there
I touched you with my hands
my hands were on your face.
translated by Talat S. Halman
fragment 4 from Sappho
and lovely laughing–oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
translated by Anne Carson
untitled fragment 3 from Sappho
among mortal women, know this
from every care
you could release me
translated by Anne Carson
Leonard Durso 