Turkish poet

Desert by Cevat Çapan

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Whenever
I sit at a table
to write something to you
I think of the tightrope performers
of my childhood and
all of a sudden
the pen in my hand
gets longer and longer
like that balance-stick
and I soon
unlike that masterful tightrope performer
more like an inexperienced clown
fall down into the void
and start jumping
in the bouncing net of dreams
Then
with the laughter
of my invisible spectators
I try to crawl
in a dry sea of tears

translated by Zeynep Bağcı & Suat Karantay

Equilibrium by Tuğrul Tanyol

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here I wait at a juncture where the road goes on and on
the fear of falling within me
at those who meet and pass me by I look at those who come and pass me up
in mirrors I look at the deep dark tunnels
far behind me a train enters that tunnel of darkness
I only wait, for if I walk

oh, just like a skillful tightrope artist
how can I possibly have come this far

translated by Jean Carpenter Efe

There’s Something I Have Learned from What I’ve Lived by Ataol Behramoğlu

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There’s something I have learned from what I’ve lived through:
If you’re to live something, live it to its fullest
Your beloved should fall exhausted from your kisses
You should fall exhausted from smelling a flower

One can watch the sky for hours
Can for hours watch the sea, a bird, a child
To live on earth is to mingle with it
Growing roots that cannot be eradicated

When you hug a friend you should hug him vigorously
You should fight with all your muscles, body, passion
And once you stretch out on the hot sand
You should rest like a grain of sand, a leaf, a stone

One should listen to all the beautiful music on earth
So as to fill all his being with sounds and songs
One should dive into life as if
Diving from a rock into an emerald sea

Distant lands should lure you, people you do not know
You should burn with the desire to read all the books, to know all the lives
You should not exchange for anything the pleasure of drinking a glass of water
All the joys should fill you with the yearning to live

And you should know grief also, with honor, with all your being
For grief also, like joy, matures a person
Your blood should mingle with the great circulation of life
In your veins must circulate the eternal fresh blood of life

There is something I have learned from what I’ve lived through:
If you’re to live, live big, as if you are mingling with the rivers, the sky, the whole universe
For what we call a life span is a gift to life
And life is a gift to mankind

translated by Suat Karantag

Muezzin by Cemal Süreya

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You hopped into bed,
But your hymen is on the table.
Never mind, Allah be praised.
There is more than one way to skin a cat.
Peel an orange and feed its slices to me.
I have a minaret, get hold of its charms,
Be my muezzin,
While the rain
Is pouring out in the street
And folks are keeping indoors
For their prayers.

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

Drizzle by Cemal Süreya

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The stars were on the sidewalk
As if at the Prophet’s coming
Because it had drizzled the night before
Dizzy like a cloud, I left her house
Skipping, skipping on the stars
Pleased as punch in the moonlight
Playing hopscotch
As at the Prophet’s coming
Because it had drizzled the night before.

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat