NO SOLUTION

Wherever rain falls on the desert
My hair gets drenched all alone
Like those nights of utter quiet
Modern vehicles halt
And the tumult ends
Foreign violets bloom there
Water.

Mutable
In its monotony
Constant down the ages
Night transforms itself into morning
And beyond
Takes on a season's pectrum.

It perpetuates its secret with such ease
From chaos to eternity
Evolving-that is to say,
well-it's a bit obscure:
What sage could solve it for certain?

Yes which sage can solve it with precision
Sometimes a polyphonic melody
Sometimes a dot or a dash
"To be or not to be..."


~ Turkan Ildeniz ~

Translated by Talat Sait Halman (1982)

I BECAME A TREE

I was going under a tree
It happened in a flash
I fell apart from myself
And became a poppy flower
Bending in the sun,
Tortoise shell, house of wedding
Delirious talk, bevy of names.
I turned into the petal that drags
The wind like a blind God,
I became the century.
A tiny moment like a bug.
I was going under a tree
I became a tree
That propels itself
And saw someone stuck in the ground.

~Melih Cevdet Anday
Translated by Talat Sait Halman (Talisman, 1991(Spring 6))

LOVE AND A COMET

all the doctors I consulted
said the same thing
- as if they'd planned it:
"you've caught love, a disease
which isn't easy to bear at your age"

whereas I had thought
that I'd simply crashed
into a comet
when my heart brightened up
with a flash
in a blind-alley of life

(Translated by Tarık Günersel)

I Want To Go With The One I Love

I want to go with the one I love.
I do not want to calculate the cost.
I do not want to think about whether it's good.
I do not want to know whether he loves me.
I want to go with whom I love.

Bertolt Brecht

If You Forget Me (Pablo Neruda read by Madonna)

YOUR FACE AND THE TOLLING OF BELLS

it was like spring time, laughing with you
and to touch the chimes of your face
a naked pomegranate, dispelled and tranquil

intimations of the forenoon, your face

at the meeting place of the autumn
in the closing seas of your face
the birds flew like poisoned arrows
the summer blindfolded at the bottom of a wall

what is left of your face, a rusty shadow
the receding forest, the flower in mourning
pieces of broken glass, the colours of spring

how do birds get accustomed to losing a sky?

ah, I'm late in learning about the rain
a naked pomegranate, defeated and somber
where the rotting autumn, your old face
vanished with the tolling of the bells

~Ayten Mutlu~ (Translated by Emine Dilek)

AN APOCALYPTIC CHAIN OF MELODY

in my destiny I am an unimaginably huge wound
my face sucks in blood as I wipe it with my handkerchief
my voice scatters in the wind that of the fall
my letters intermingle with the pollen

letters are the alchemy of defying the world
to songs left unfinished
they are an ever-changing malignity
they are that stagnant water which churns
in my oversized universe which won't fit into books:
like a lilac stain
they seem to leave to leave a trace in the night

so, with a new cause the dawn is breaking
filled with the cries of leaves gone berserk
as I keep pouring my venom on my wound
the sentences turn into an apocalyptic chain of melody
let the sun fall on my forehead, my sweat turn cold
at the most challenging point of my epileptic anguish

no, my love, I will not spell out this song for you
with its aroma discarded, metamorphosed in riots
I have long since stamped my seal
put down my clumsy signature
on the most demanding part of life
and at every sunrise I have brushed my teeth
pressing life hard onto my flesh

come on, pick up that comb that adores poems
and start the day combing your hair

~Metin Cengiz ~ (Translated by Emine Dilek)