Turkish poet

For You by Orhan Veli Kanık

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For you, my fellow humans,
Everything is for you,
Nights are for you, days are for you;
Daylight is for you, moonlight is for you;
Leaves in the moonlight,
Wonder and wisdom in the leaves,
Myriad greens in daylight,
Yellow is for you, and pink.
The feel of the skin on the palm,
Its warmth,
Its softness,
The comfort of lying down;
For you are all the greetings
And the masts swaying in the harbor;
Names of the days,
Names of the months,
Fresh paint on rowboats is for you,
Mailmen’s feet,
Potters’ hands,
Sweat on foreheads.
Bullets fired on battlefields;
Graves are for you and tombstones,
Jails and handcuffs and death sentences
Are for you.
Everything is for you.

translated by Talat S. Halman

My Lord granted me such a heart by Yunus Emre

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My Lord granted me such a heart,
At once, it began to adore.
Now, one moment it basks in joy;
Next moment its tears start to pour.

One moment it seems like a bird
In the dead of winter, stranded.
Next moment it revels: gardens
And orchards are born at its core.

One moment it becomes tongue-tied
And leaves all things unclarified.
Next moment, pearls spill from its mouth:
To those who suffer, it gives cure.

One moment it soars to heaven–
It descends into the earth, then.
One moment it seems like a drop,
Then like the ocean whose waves roar.

translated by Talat S. Halman

Link by Mehmet Yardımcı

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they are an unknown universe ever since
the first story of creation, those butterflies

a seed is carried from flower to flower
on early summer days in disguise

a phrygian statue evokes
past glory in the museum where it lies

loved ones may be far or forgotten
but as years go by we remember their eyes

translated by Talat S. Halman

Whole Summer by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

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How well the whole summer passed,
nights in a small garden. . .
you white as lilies
and in a furtive thought. . .
as if in the full moon night
the reverie can’t be crossed
becoming a palace
as if in house arrest
How well the whole summer passed,
nights in the small garden. . .

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

Because by Nazım Hikmet

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They’ll go to the moon
. . . . . . .and beyond,
to places even telescopes can’t see.
But when will no one go hungry
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .on earth
. . . . . . .or fear others
. . . . . . .or push them around,
. . . . . . .shun them
. . . . . . .or steal their hope?
Because I responded to this question
. . . . . . . . . .I’m called a Communist.

translated by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk