Love without hope, as when the young bird-catcher
Swept off his tall hat to the Squire’s own daughter,
So let the imprisoned larks escape and fly
Singing about her head, as she rode by.
poetry
A Drinking Song by W.B. Yeats
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
I Am Not I by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.
translated by Robert Bly
Last Love by Fyodor Tyutchev
Love at the closing of our days
is apprehensive and very tender.
Glow brighter, brighter, farewell rays
of one last love in its evening splendor.
Blue shade takes half the world away:
through western clouds alone some light is slanted.
O tarry, O tarry, declining day,
enchantment, let me stay enchanted.
The blood runs thinner, yet the heart
remains as ever deep and tender.
O last belated love, thou art
a blend of joy and of hopeless surrender.
translated by Vladimir Nabokov
Falling Leaves by Nazim Hikmet
I’ve read about falling leaves in fifty thousand poems novels
and so on
watched leaves falling in fifty thousand movies
seen leaves fall fifty thousand times
fall drift and rot
felt their dead shush shush fifty thousand times
underfoot in my hands on my fingertips
but I’m still touched by falling leaves
especially those falling on boulevards
especially chestnut leaves
and if kids are around
if it’s sunny
and I’ve got good news for friendship
especially if my heart doesn’t ache
and I believe my love loves me
especially if it’s a day I feel good about people
I’m touched by falling leaves
especially those falling on boulevards
especially chestnut leaves
translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk
Oceans by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I have a feeling that my boat
has struck, down there in the depths,
against a great thing.
And nothing
happens! Nothing. . . Silence. . . Waves. . .
–Nothing happens? Or has everything happened,
and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?
translated by Robert Bly
PRO PATRIA by Orhan Veli Kanik
What have we not done
For our mother-
land;
Some of us died;
Some gave speeches.
Full Of by Orhan Veli Kanik
We have seas, full of the sun;
We have trees, full of leaves;
From dawn to dusk we go and go and come
Among our seas, among our trees
Full of
The blues.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
I Love You So by Ahmet Ada
You’ll stand waiting in the rain your eyelashes will grow long
Dusk will descend in a little while
To the water that runs softly to the lonesome asphalt roads
You will walk and your eyelashes will get wet tenderly
And love will accompany you
From the marble sidewalk
“I love you so,” the girl
Who has made a kite out of her heart will say
That girl who sheds leaves when you steal a look
A dawdler, you will walk
Your heart seething with flighty passions
On your lapel a flower that offers all of its fragrance
Inquiring into the loves that have an unhappy ending
The desk will study you, the water glass will be full
When that young girl awakes now
translated by Talat S. Halman
Suddenly by Nazim Hikmet
Suddenly something snaps in me and catches in my throat,
suddenly, in the middle of work, I jump up,
suddenly, in a hotel, in the hall, standing up, I fall into a dream,
suddenly, on the sidewalk, a branch whacks me in the forehead,
suddenly a wolf howls at the moon, miserable, enraged, starved,
suddenly stars hang from a swing in a garden,
suddenly I see myself in the grave,
suddenly my head is a sunny haze,
suddenly I cling to the day I started out as if it wouldn’t end,
and every time you float up to the surface. . .
translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk
Leonard Durso 