Was I going to have such thoughts too
And spend sleepless nights
And go through quiet spells?
And never miss
My favoriye salad?
Were things going to come to this?
translated by Talat S. Halman
Turkish poet
A Dream Far Away by Güven Turan
On the plains behind the cliff
An unsheltering wind
Uproots the shrubs
Gives way to cane beds
Even in mid summer
Seagulls
Flee southward to hunt
Without planting a tree
I can leave my body and go
Near one of the traps I’ve set
On the third day the moss hides
Within forty days the ice petrıfies
To become so attached to a dream
To expand the saddening wastes of the city
Even when her picture has decayed on my table
Before a new thunderstorm arises
One should pull the boat ashore
translated by Suat Karantay
Don’t Ask by Turgay Fişekçi
Don’t ask me who I am
Whence I came from
Which days the red clouds
In my eyes are from, don’t ask.
Inexplicable things
May indeed have occurred in the days begone
I may have eaten the grapes
I stole from the vineyards
Leaning against the bosom of the blue sky.
Don’t ask me who I am
What my job is, how old I am
Just say “Do you love me?”
And ask no more.
translated by Gül Erçetin & Suat Karantay
Rain Cloud by Mehmet Yaşın
Farewell, my sweet
I’m on my way
shedding tears, but silently.
Don’t be sorry
your room shall retain not a tear or trace
of myself
small black rain cloud that I am
I’ll have been erased.
translated by Suat Karantay
Gather Some Sun for Me (dedicated to Karacaoğlan) by Ülkü Tamer
Dawn-wind, go to the mountains
Gather some sun for me
Send messages in all four directions
Gather some sun for me
From amongst the hopes
From the black of eyelashes
From the wound of the knife in the breast
Gather some sun for me
From summer, winter and spring
From the four walls of the jails
From loves at full gallop
Gather some sun for me
Dawn-wind, from the eye of the beloved
From the trace of the flying bird
From the skies of the night
Gather some sun for me
translated by Osman Kaytan & Jean Carpenter Efe
Balloons by Şavkar Altınel
On cloudless nights
right before darkness falls
big balloons around here
sometimes appear in the sky;
like pears upside down
they drift away slowly
with flames from their burners
occasionally flaring.
And you imagine
getting on one and rising up high;
the ropes moved by the wind
the basket swinging in empty space
and beneath a life’s
familiar landscapes:
fields of hope, hills of love
darkened woods
where dreams come to an end
a few bitter towns
not removed from memory yet
and roads of regret
stretching away bending and curling
all are small, even, remote
and now almost forgotten
as the day fades slowly away.
translated by Didem Ünlü & Suat Karantay
Passing By by Güngör Tekçe
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
Blue by Güngör Tekçe
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
One of These Two by Güngör Tekçe
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
from A Man by Attila İlhan
I am a man
another man
a vagabond
who dumped his youth headlong into the streets
and tossed away his hopes like pigeons
lost them time and time again
lost them in the graveyard of ships
in his cruel poems and songs
found them time and time again
then he dragged the dawn’s shrieks by the hair
there goes the sea and there goes he
there goes the cloud and there goes he
a man
a different man
a vagabond
translated by Talat S. Halman
Leonard Durso 