Next to the book

Yıldızlar — The Stars by Oktay Rifat  Kitabın yanında defter vardır, Next to the book is a writing journal, Defterin yanında bardak. A glass next to the journal. Çocuk bardağın yanında, A child next to the glass Çocuğun yanında kedi – A cat next to the child —  Ve bir beyaz karanfil. And a whiteContinue reading “Next to the book”

The room talks about everything

ODA / ROOM by İlhan Berk Evin doğası sessizliktir. Odalar, sofalar, merdivenler, döşemeler sessizlik eğirir. The nature of the house is silence. Rooms, sofas, stairs, furniture weave silence.  SESSİZLİK İSTER EV. THE HOUSE DEMANDS SILENCE. Ev keçiyolları yumağıdır.  Bu keçiyolları besler onu. Böyle bir sessizlik, sınırsızlık saçar. House is a winding ball of narrow paths. Continue reading “The room talks about everything”

A gift for Arif Damar

O Diligent Like an Apple by İlhan Berk A gift for Arif Damar at the age of seventy. His watch is set to the time of ordinary people, to grass,  to insects. His papers are above rivers, rainbows and our footpaths. On his clothes and shoes. His pages are adjusted to the water’s flow. InContinue reading “A gift for Arif Damar”

Arif Damar: Tulin’s face

We were Poor We Loved the World by Arif Damar So distantSo beautifulIt turned out eventuallyThat I never saw that faceLike it had never existed When I am desolateHeartbrokenThe serene beautyOn Tulin’s faceHow it resemblesThe one on the blurredBrokenMissing glassOf a homeless memory On a dismal winter eveningDelicatePaleDarkHow it resemblesThe one I keep looking atSecretlyWhenContinue reading “Arif Damar: Tulin’s face”

Five Lines / Beş Satırla

Annelerin ninnilerinden From mothers’ lullabies spikerin okuduğu habere kadar, To news spouted by talking heads, yürekte, sokakta, kitapta, yenebilmek yalanı, To overcome lies in the heart, in the street, in books,  anlamak, sevgilim, o, ne müthiş bahtiyarlık, To discover, my love, the awesome good fortune, anlamak gideni ve gelmekte olanı. Of understanding what is goneContinue reading “Five Lines / Beş Satırla”

Ruining your concentration

“I remember the first day you came to the exhibition.  You were strolling through the gallery looking rather bored, when you suddenly stopped in front of my portrait.  You looked at it so strangely!  Everyone around you noticed.   “Sizi sergiye ilk geldiğiniz günden beri hatırlıyorum.  Canınız sıkılmış gibi dolaşırken birdenbire benim portremin önünde durdunuz…Continue reading “Ruining your concentration”

& Silk & Love & Flame

1. It all happenedbecause I am so afraid of flowing to you,this is why waterfalls also interest me. … the world was a depressing place, I didn’t love itswar films and samurai as I used to… was I consigningmyself to a vacuum … were wires scratching my skinand hurting me… I was getting usedto myContinue reading “& Silk & Love & Flame”

İlk rast geldiğimiz insan

How easily people can read each other!… And there I was, trying so hard to penetrate someone else’s mind, to find out if the soul hiding inside it was ordered or in turmoil.  For even the most wretched and simpleminded man could be a surprise, even a fool could have a soul whose torments wereContinue reading “İlk rast geldiğimiz insan”

Find Gardeners Two and Five and Gardener Seven

Alice biraz çekinerek, “O gülleri neden boyadığınızı lütfen söyler misiniz?” diye sordu. Beş ve Yedi ağızlarını açmayarak İki’ye baktılar.  İki, hafif bir sesle anlatmaya başladı.  “Durum şu küçük hanım.  Burada kırmızı gül ağacı olması gerekiyordu.  Biz yanlışlıkla burası beyaz olanını diktik.  Yani, eğer Kraliçe işi fark ederse hepimizin kafasını kestirir.” Lewis Carroll, Alice Harikalar Diyarında,Continue reading “Find Gardeners Two and Five and Gardener Seven”

Şiir Nefreti / The Hatred of Poetry

In ninth grade English, Mrs. X required us to memorize and recite a poem, so I went and asked the Topeka High librarian to direct me to the shortest poem she knew, and she suggested Marianne Moore’s “Poetry,” which, in the 1967 version, reads in its entirety: I, too, dislike it. Reading it, however, withContinue reading “Şiir Nefreti / The Hatred of Poetry”