from Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, vol 1, Marcel Proust: …that deceptive joy given to us by some friend, some relative of the woman we love when, arriving at the house or theater where she is, for some dance, gala evening, or premiere at which he is going to see her, this friendContinue reading “Party overtures”
Tag Archives: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
LİR, 5 – 6
LİR – LYRE by İlhan Berk 5. Dilin ‘fosil şiirenden’ söz eder Emmerson. Buna ayakbasılmadık dil demeli. Şiiren ufku da orda baş verir. Emerson talks of the ‘fossil poems’ of the language. It ought to be called the untouched language. The poem’s horizon starts there. 6. Nesneler, imgeler gibi şairlere verilmiştir. Ama korku saçar nesneler!Continue reading “LİR, 5 – 6”
Maybe alone (or not)
Arife Kalender – Yalnız Mı (Am I alone) Ben şimdi yalnız mıyım Am I alone now tek başıma bir geceyi izlerken while watching a night alone ilkin sen giriyorsun içeriye first you are coming inside ardından seninle gelenler after are those coming with you dost düşman friend, enemy her şey ve herkes burada everything andContinue reading “Maybe alone (or not)”
I don’t like to turn back
Autobiography -Nazım Hikmet I was born in 1902 I never once went back to my birthplace I don’t like to turn back at three I served as a pasha’s grandson in Aleppo at nineteen as a student at Moscow Communist University at forty-nine I was back in Moscow as the Tcheka Party’s guest and I’veContinue reading “I don’t like to turn back”
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”
Ağacım ben
I’m the tree. A tree unlike any other you’ve seen in the world. There is nothing at all to compare them. Not even two drops of water are alike. This world tries to make me other than I am. Still it’s me. Another me: A tree’s shadow. Nothing is clear anyway. ‘Should we dwellContinue reading “Ağacım ben”
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”
Nergis
When things do not go well You switch to the other time A star falls down to earth The ground suddenly shakes Children with dead eyes Waiting for a sun that will not rise There on the mountains Such snow and hard winds Until the forgotten Daffodil blooms Gülten Akın, “The Other Time” (English translation:Continue reading “Nergis”