The sound of the key in the lock

Sesler – Sounds by Aziz Nesin   Gecenin bir zamanı evine gelince Kilitte duyuyorsan anahtarın sesini Anla ki yalnızsın When coming home in the evening You hear the sound of the key in the lock Know that you are alone Elektrik düğmesini çevirince Çıt diye bir ses duyuyorsan Anla ki yalnızsın When switching on theContinue reading “The sound of the key in the lock”

LİR, 9 – 10

LİR – LYRE by İlhan Berk 9.  Bir şiiri bitirdiğimde benim değilmiş gibi bakarım. Benim olduğunu çok sonra anlarım. (Güneş battığı yeri bilmek ister.) When I finish a poem I view it as if it were not mine.   Much later I know it’s mine. (The sun wants to know where it sinks.) 10. HerContinue reading “LİR, 9 – 10”

While listening to Bach

 Bach’ı Dinlerken / While listening to Bach  by Tuğrul Tanyol melody filling my heart with light “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” like a cry to heaven rising with that voice a paean in a language I don’t understand maybe a plea to God never-ending echoes in that tiny church voices intertwining  the choir sings with sharedContinue reading “While listening to Bach”

In a flash

Birdenbire – Suddenly by Orhan Veli Kanık Everything happened in a flash. Suddenly sunlight struck the earth; All at once there was sky; Suddenly blue. Everything happened in a flash; Suddenly fumes rose from the earth; All at once there were buds and sprouts. Suddenly fruit. In a flash;  In a flash;  Suddenly everything existed.Continue reading “In a flash”

The landscape changes

Seni Düşünmek – To Think of You by Nazım Hikmet Seni düşünmek güzel şey, ümitli şey To think of you is a beautiful thing, a hopeful thing Dünyanın en güzel sesindenEn güzel şarkıyı dinlemek gibi bir şey It’s as if listening to the most beautiful song sung by the world’s most beautiful voice Fakat artık ümitContinue reading “The landscape changes”

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”