Two poems from the Turkish by Ahmet Uysal
translated by Nesrin Eruysal and Ken Fifer
Mercanyine görmeye geldim işte: homeros’un zeytin ağacı ki; çizikler atıp durdu utanmaz, gökyüzü eğildi üzerime |
CoralI came back again to see Homer’s olive tree, Shameless wild blackberries, The sky, bent over me, |
* * *
Lirik Ezgileraşkın şiirini de yazmamı * * * * * |
SongsWet-winged seagulls From a stopover between kisses, With buzzing wings It’s strange, as I grow old There’s no time to be a pessimist. From the Hittite land with one thousand gods |
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(Thanks to Hayri Çelebi at Ankara University for recording the part in Turkish.)
Ahmet Uysal (b. 1938 in Balikesir, Turkey) worked as a teacher and administrator at elementary, high school and vocational education schools in Balikesir, Yozgat, Çanakkale and Bursa, and later as a Ministry of National Education’s Primary School inspector. Since publishing his first poem in 1954, his poems, short stories and critical essays have appeared widely, winning numerous awards. The founder and editor of the literary magazine Stories for Children, he has written more than 120 books for children, winning both the Unesco Special Award and Sedat Simavi Foundation’s Children’s Year Special Award for Once and Twice Upon A Time (1979). His poetry books include With Waters (Yeni Biçem Yay, 1994); Long Gone Summers (Düslem Yay, 1998), recipient of the Ceyhun Atuf Kansu Poetry Award; The Silence of Suffering (Bilgi Yay, 1999), recipient of the Yunus Nadi Poetry Award; Fugitive Poetry (Imbat Yay, 2006); and Paper Marbling of September (Mühür Kitapligi, 2009), recipient of the Ergin Günçe Poetry Award. He currently lives in Edremit/Altinoluk.
Nesrin Eruysal is a literary scholar and translator of two books, Corporate Religion (Mediacat, 2002) and A Company of Citizens (Mediacat, 2005). She has published a number of articles that explore the relationship between literature and Jungian thought and is the author of “I Wish That Jewish Doctor Had Come Earlier” (Gozlem Publication Company, 2002).
Ken Fifer lives in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, and is a Professor of English at Penn State University, Berks campus. His own poems and his translations of contemporary Turkish poetry have appeared in many journals, including Barrow Street, New Letters, Ploughshares, and The Wolf (UK). He has published four collections of poetry, the most recent being After Fire.
qarrtsiluni 
I just love these, especially “Coral.” Thank you!
And my heart beats faster when I read “Songs”. I can smell these hollyhocks. Wonderful.
‘Coral’: “Shameless wild blackberries/Showing off their scratches” – beautiful …
‘Songs’: “A wasp inspects/My breath as it mists the window” – dark, beautiful …
Thank you!
Thank you Ken and Nesrin for giving us Uysal’s work. “… As I grow old/
I think of weeds with blue flowers/ Swaying on shore, never of death.” There’s much for the ages here. I was reminded of Theodore Roethke’s “The Far Field,” one of my all-time favorites.
Powerful, soulful work. Beautiful.
Lovely uplifting poems,
‘… as I grow old
I think of weeds with blue flowers
Swaying on shore, never of death.
There’s no time to be a pessimist.
I’d rather look for simpler words
And more overgrown paths’
these lines give me such heart.
I’ve just read the two poems with greater pleasure than the first time!
Many thanks.
Your “Songs” moves me deeply. It’s one of those poems I wish I’d written. Thank you, both.