GULTEN AKIN
(1933)

TEA

1.
The sound of nightingales, of ripening strawberries
the weak moming tea
in his hand extended towards me
the incited ease
but we got used to living like culprits
where, oh, where should one hide it

Our souls which he closed we closed tightly
touched one another (for the first time?)
flattening out the sea vanished
in a dream we were, if it weren't for the sound of fishermen's boats

2
the mountains lilac-colored and dark
kept approaching and overcame us
we were lost we were in the lost country
we touched the silence with the wing of a sparrow

we denounced
the sky, the heavy clouds, the bay
we denounced that which sank and vanlshed
the evening, going past the old voices of the neighbors
drew us in
with the taste of yogurt and apple

Translated by Suat Karantay

UNRULY GYPSY

I am the silver fox of an extended hunting
I ran along rivers I ran in the snow
I let go I did not kill, life was sacred
I turned around and hunted myself

The lines were ready, they gave life to whoever asked for it
It was all ready I only recounted it as a fairy talev
I'm the unruly gypsy of the sun, I followed the sun only
Roads bled in yearning, mountains echoed my name
I became a tree my fruit was shaken off, I am contented
My feet walked inside of me

I am Hallac, I am Nesimi, I believed so fervently
That I outpoured from my skin

I held death I held death
At a distance I renounced it
Like a screw silently by itself
It got used to me

Translated by Suat Karantay

 

Gülten Akın was born in 1933 and is Turkey’s most distinguished female poet. She studied Law at Ankara University and worked as a barrister in various parts of Anatolia. She is at the forefront of poets for whom poetry is synonymous with social responsibility. Her poetry has a calm yet powerful voice. Her poems have been translated into English, German, Flemish, Danish, Italian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Polish, Spanish and Hebrew, and used in academic studies. Her major poetry collections include Rüzgâr Saati/Hour of the Wind, Kestim Kara Saçlarımı/ Cut My Dark Hair, Sığda/In the Shallows, Kırmızı Karanfil/Red Carnation, Maraş’ın ve Ökkeş’in Destanı/Epic of Maraş and Ökkeş, Ağıtlar ve Türküler/Elegies and Folk Songs, İlahiler/Hymns, Sevda Kalıcıdır/Love Endures, Sonra İşte Yaşlandım/It Was Then That I Aged, Sessiz Arka Bahçeler/Silent Back Yards and Uzak Bir Kıyıda/On a Distant Shore. Akın won the 1961 and 1971 Turkish Language Association Poetry Awards and the 1992 Sedat Simavi Literature Award.