AHMET ARIF

LEYLI MY LEYLI
Leyli - my Leyli - when half our world 
Is red and green with spring 
And half all snow 
Still brothers and tribes are at each other's throats 
Still, the scorpion 
The yellow adder 
On our white foreheads harlot oppression 
And during bright midnights 
Against the double-winged gates, gallows 
And the fountain in the prison yard 
Is flowing on thc side 
Death came and felt me between the ribs
Let it feel ...
It is their time, I cannot resist them
The time, mosf forked and rebellious 
Of your hell-budding breasts 
It is the time, forty days and nights 
Your arms were noosed around my neck ?
And my heart bent on evil... 
What can I say 
Their bullets in place 
Their hands bloodstained 
When the patrols crush our sleep 

My heart is taken by you 
Though the mirrors may not echo you

I cannot plunder your garden 
Now, I say, this is the soft spot of the bastard 
Now my knife is bright as hell
Then you come to my mind 
My hands are lifeless 
All the thieves know 
About our love 
The curved dagger, the black rifle, the bloody ambush
Have found out
And that most shameful fruit of human thought
The mad uranium 
It has found out 
Let them 
Let them see 
How I burn for you 
Oh bride

Before the blood-smeared pirates 
The rabid dogs 
Fed on forbidden flesh 
The false prophets 
And their dwarfs 
Their gelded, idiot slaves
One more time I say it
While this soul is mine 
I am mad for you 
Oh bride

These taboos 
Are remnants of the Pharaohs 
Meaningless 
Old stories 
For your secret innermost being traps are set 
Some days hopeless 
Of doing their filthy work 
Some days waiting 
Too see you fall 
Do not fall! 
I would die ...
Left without your eyes, your eyes.

Leyli - my Leyli 
When quinces become pomegranates 
And you become mine 
When for our troubled heads 
The world becomes narrow.

Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

AHMED ARiF (1927-1991) He completed his high school education at the Diyarbakir High School. His university education was interrupted by two arrests (1952-1953) while he was a student of philosophy at the Ankara University Faculty of Letters, due to his protesting against Article 141 of the Turkish Sentencing Code. The poems he published in journals between 1940 and 1955 were widely read and well received. He achieved a special place in Turkish literature due to the original lyricism and imagination of his poetry, which was influenced by Anatolian folk cultures. He published only one collection of poetry. Ahmet Oktay's study (Karanfil ve Pranga, Istanbul: Metis Yayinlari, 1990) on Ahmed Arif's poetry is the most detailed criticism and analysis of his work. POETRY: Hasretinden Prangalar Eskittim (1968).