METIN ALTIOK
(1941 - 1993)

SONNET 18
As their days ahead turn purple with doubt,
Their deformed past days dim.
Those indifferent people addicted to long life
Are like burr-weeds on the transparent material of time.
Those admirers of long life should behold,
If all they need is some more injury,
Their personality is mud ages old,
They should just look back and see.
I don't think the idea of death is terrifying,
If it's the deserved harvest of a life.
That moving desire of life for coming
Anew is, I think, worth an early death.
                 One shining scale on the back of a dragon I am,
                 One falls off, another comes out when it's time.

Translated by Yusuf Eradam

PASSENGER

He looked every bit the traveller
Waiting In front of the diner next to the gas station
Holding his lute and saddlebag.
The man had wafted over his shoulders at dusk
Since then his eyes reflected
The window of a bus flitting by.

translated by Talat Sait Halman

 

CONCERNING MYSELF

1.
I have the fright of a lost child in me,
While looking out of the window;
Out there, some dry mountains and an oak tree.

2.
In my suitcase I find an onion with shoots;
It must have got there in some strange way,
Sticking its fingers out of my underclothes.

3.
In that place, a long time ago, I got to know suffering.
There's no point in going back to my hometown now;
As for my name, anyway, they would all need reminding.

Translated by Yurdanur Salman

 

AVALANCHE

As I lie on a soft divan
Leafing through the glossary of an old love
I hear a gentle knock at the door,
This quiet, still and sunny summer day.
Soon as I open the door, an avalanche fills the room.

Translated by Nermin Menemencioglu