In the next life, after the factories end their work
If the road taking us home
In the evenings
Is not
So steep
Death
Is not a horrible thing
At all.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
Turkish poet
I Am Listening To Istanbul by Orhan Veli Kanık
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed
First a breeze is blowing
And leaves swaying
Slowly on the trees;
Far, far away the bells of the
Water carriers ringing,
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed
A bird is passing by,
Birds are passing by, screaming, screaming,
Fish nets being withdrawn in fishing weirs,
A woman’s toe dabbling in water,
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
I am listening,
The cool Grand Bazaar,
Mahmutpasha twittering
Full of pigeons,
Its vast courtyard,
Sounds of hammering from the docks,
In the summer breeze far, far away the odor of sweat,
I am listening.
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed
The drunkenness of old times
In the wooden seaside villa with its deserted boathouse
The roaring southwestern wind is trapped,
My thoughts are trapped
Listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed
A coquette is passing by on the sidewalk,
Curses, sings, sings, passes;
Something is falling from your hand
To the ground,
It must be a rose.
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed
A bird is flying around your skirt;
I know if your forehead is hot or cold
Or your lips are wet or dry;
Or if a white moon is rising above the pistachio tree
My heart’s fluttering tells me. . .
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
My Youth Is All Gone by Orhan Veli Kanık
Where was this melancholy in those days?
This crying inside,
Singing of faraway things?
I raised hell
Every day then;
To a dance today, to the movies tomorrow,
If I didn’t like it, to a cafe;
If I didn’t like that either, to the park;
I embellished my lover
In poems,
I took her to picnics,
A book of poems on our laps;
Where, where,
Where was this melancholy in those days?
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
For Free by Orhan Veli Kanık
We are living for free;
The air is for free, the clouds are for free.
Hills and dales are for free;
Rain and mud are for free;
The outside of cars,
The entrance to movie houses,
The store windows are for free;
It is not the same as bread and cheese,
But salt water is for free;
Freedom will cost you your life,
But slavery is for free;
We are living for free,
For free.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
The Mermaid by Orhan Veli Kanik
She must just have left the sea.
Her hair and lips
Smelled of the sea till the morning.
Her rising and falling breast was like the sea.
I knew she was poor–
But you can’t talk of poverty all the time.
Gently, next to my ear
She sang songs of love.
Who knows what she has learned and experienced
In her life fighting the sea.
Patching fish nets, casting fish nets, gathering fish nets.
Making tackles, dropping out baits cleaning boats.
To remind me of spiny fish
Her hands touched my hands.
That night I saw, I saw it in her eyes;
How lovely the sea has risen in the open sea.
Her hair taught me about waves;
I tossed and tossed around dreams.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
A Glittering Poem by Orhan Veli Kanik
I woke up one morning;
The sun came up to me;
I turned into birds and leaves;
They glittered in the spring breeze;
I turned into birds and leaves;
My arms and legs were rotting;
I turned into birds and leaves,
Birds
And leaves.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
To Keep Busy by Orhan Veli Kanık
The beautiful women thought
The love poems I wrote
Were about them.
And I always suffered
Knowing that I wrote them
To keep busy.
translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat
Exodus by Orhan Veli Kanık
I
From his window overlooking the roofs
The harbor was in sight
Church bells
Tolled all day long.
From his bed the trains could be heard
From time to time
And at night.
He loved a girl
Who lived in the house across the street.
Be that as it may,
He left this town
And moved to another.
II
Now the poplars are in view
Out of his window
Along the canal.
Daytime it keeps raining
And the moon is up at night.
There’s a market in the square nearby.
As for him, all the time,
Whatever it is–a trip or money or a letter,
He keeps thinking of something.
translated by Talat S. Halman
This World by Orhan Veli Kanık
This world drives you out of your mind,
This night, these stars, this fragrance,
This tree bursting with flowers from tip to toe.
translated by Talat S. Halman
Living by Orhan Veli Kanık
I
I know living isn’t an easy thing to do
Or falling in love and singing of your girl
Taking a stroll under the stars at night
Warming up in the sunshine by day
Sneaking out for half a day to take it easy
On top of Istanbul’s loveliest hill
–Countless shades of blue flow in the Bosphorus–
And to forget all in the legions of blue.
II
I know living isn’t an easy thing to do
But look
The bed of a dead man is still warm,
A dead man’s wristwatch is ticking.
Brother, living is no easy affair,
But dying isn’t easy, either.
Leaving the world isn’t easy at all.
translated by Talat S. Halman
Leonard Durso 