Monday, January 1, 2018

AYTEN MUTLU


AYTEN  MUTLU
WE GOT LOST INSIDE US

they were talking
beyond a faraway place
solitude and me
left the voices into the table clothes
and walked

the blue moon was also walking with us
a hazel cat in the blind looks
of flashing red lights
stood and looked at the shades
of intertwined ghosts
which fell into the waters in Bozcaada
like a solemn lion
stretchingly for a while

a man was sitting alone
a woman was sitting alone
we were two of us
you with me
me with you hand in hand
we escaped from a crowdy loneliness
and joined a lonely crowd

first we read sorrow in each other
then we sat on wet grasses
you spoke keeping silent
i kept silence speaking

while ships in Bozcaada Harbor were waiting for
people
lights were off
the cat went

having left each other into wet grasses
---at a place in time
you and me...

TRANSLATION: BAKI YIĞIT


İçimizde kaybolduk

konuşuyorlardı
uzak ötesi bir yerde
yalnızlık ve ben
bırakıp sesleri masa örtülerine
yürüdük

mavi ay da yürüyordu bizimle
yanıp sönen kırmızı ışıkların
kör bakışlarında ela bir kedi
heybetli bir aslan gibi
durup gerinerek baktı bir süre
birbirine sarılmış hayaletlerin
Bozcaada sularına düşen suretlerine

bir adam yalnız başına oturuyordu
bir kadın yalnız başına oturuyordu
ikimizdik biz
sen benimle
ben seninle el ele
kalabalık bir yalnızlıktan kaçıp
yalnız bir kalabalığa karıştık

hüznü okuduk önce birbirimizde
sonra ıslak çimenlere oturduk
sen susarak konuştun
ben konuşarak sustum

Bozcaada limanında gemiler
beklerken kimseleri
söndü ışıklar
kedi gitti

sen ve ben
---zamanın bir yerinde
ıslak çimenlere bırakarak birbirimizi…




TAKE A CUP OF COFFE WITH ME

Please take a seat,
to have coffe with me
you may go later
you may take whatever we have lived together
Now please take a rest,
to have a cup of coffe

Let your hands remain traces on the cups
so do your eyes, lips
so do the unworn years we had together
let the half songs remain traces

Please take a cup of coffe
for the last time with me
Then you can go
as if you have never come

TRANSLATION: HILAL KARAHAN



Bir kahve iç benimle

Otur, bir kahve iç
Sonra gidersin
Götürürsün ne varsa yaşadığımız
Bekle biraz, bir kahve iç
İzi kalsın ellerinin fincanda
Gözlerinin, dudaklarının
Birlikte eskimeyen yıllarımızın
İzi kalsın yarım kalan şarkıların
Bir kahve iç n’olur son kez benimle
Hiç gelmemiş gibi
Gidersin sonra.





LET’S DRINK

autumn is here
the sun and wine are witnesses
and the vine leaves yellowing on their branches
sharpened knives of light are witnesses
to the regrets we’ve gathered
from the vineyard of time

today let’s go to it, to time,
to the red goddess who covers memory
with her tulle skirt

somehow we’ve already lost
more than we have
like a jug of wine we poured out without drinking

there are too many things to forget
too few to remember
the love whose sky we lean on is witness

come on let’s drink
the rest of our lives
when descending evening like a break-up song
let's the wine spread
within our blood slowly
like a moment of reunion

TRANSLATION: BAKI YIĞIT


İçelim

işte sonbahar
tanıktır güneş ve şarap
dalında sararan yaprakları asmaların
ışığın bilediği bıçaklar tanıktır
zamanın bağından derlediğimiz
pişmanlıklara

ona gidelim bugün, zamana
belleği tülden etekleriyle
örten kızıl tanrıçaya
içmeden döktüğümüz bir testi şarap gibi
bizde olandan fazlasını
çoktan yitirdik nasılsa

unutulacak ne çok şey var
ne az hatırlanacak
tanıktır göğüne yaslandığımız aşk

hadi içelim
ömrümüzün kalanını
bir ayrılık şarkısı gibi inerken akşam
son bir vuslat demi olsun
kanımıza yudum yudum

yayılan şarap




AYTEN MUTLU

AYTEN MUTLU, a Turkish poet and writer (born in Bandırma, Turkey. Graduated from the Faculty of Management  of İstanbul University in 1975. She was retired from The Central Bank. Her political activism began in high school, when she was fifteen years old. Being in political activity she took part in the Women’s  Rights Movement too. She has published poetry, prose, short stories and essays on literary criticism. She also translated the works of a number of contemporary poets from English to Turkish that published many of them in periodicals. She translates the works of the women poets from Antiquity to the present days in  selections from the world over. Her research on women poets from Antiquity to the present day, published in many literary magazines. She presented papers at some universities. Some of her poems took place in many countries, some magazines, newspapers and anthologies in France, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Senegal, Morocco, Italy, Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Macedonia, Romania, Spain, Argentina, South Korea, India and Russia. She is a laureate of  Ibrahim Yildizoglu Literary Prize (1999), Poetry Prize of the International Meeting of the Poets of Yalova (2001) and Sunullah Arısoy Literary Prize (2005). Some Critics wrote about her poems: “Her poetry explodes with sound and meaning. She reflects a struggle within herself, as well as a view of the world in which all horror and beauty are seen at once and often intermingled. Her opposition and political ideas are reflected in her poems but from a lyrical point of view.” “Mutlu is a master the condensed poem, of the image that illumines and quietly explodes with sound and meaning”. She said about her work; “My aim is to write poems that will sing like the peoples songs of the world. I wish to reach and enrich people in mines, on farms, homes, factories, prisons: to entertain, to show, to illumine. Because, I believe that poetry is wide broad like life and will somehow  succesfully call the humanity in people.

Works: Dayan Ey Sevdam (Resist Oh My Love, 1984), Vaktolur (A Time Comes When…, 1986), Seni Özledim (I Missed You, 1990), Kül İzi (The Trace of Ash, 1993), Denize Doğru (Towards the Sea, 1996), Çocuk ve Akşam (Child And Evening, 1999), Taş Ayna (Stone Mirror, 2002), Yitik Anlam Peşinde (In Search of Lost Meaning, 2004), Ateşin Köklerinde (In Roots Of Fire - Selected Poems, 2006) Uzun Gemide Akşam (Le soir Dans Le Bateau Long, 2007) Eşikte (At Threshold-2009) долга вечер на одборот (published in 2011 in Macedonian) Threshold (2009), Istanbul eyes (Ochii Istanbulului-2012 in Romania- Les Yeux d’Istanbul poésie-2014 in France and published in Turkey in 2013 ) Stone Mirror- poetry published in India-2014 Dew Drops (2016)

Translations: Ölü Canlar (Dead Souls), Gogol, 2006. Sen Sanırdım Her Baharı - Çağdaş İngiliz Şair Kadınlar Seçkisi (I thought it was you every spring - Anthology of English poems of women poets), 2007 (with Dr. Dincer Figun). Ölümün Anayurdu - Dragojlovic-Dragan (Death’s Homeland) - Poetry-2009 (with Dr. Dincer Figun). Neredeyse Siyah- Niculina Oprea (Almost Black-Poems-2010). Sana Bakıyorum -Maram al-Masri - (I Look at You) Poems I-2010).Kükreyiş Ve Sessizlik-  Nedeljko-Terzic (Rrugissement and Silence-Poetry-2012).Yağmur Yağabilir- (Rain it may) Ashis Sanyal (2014). Ölüm, O Çıplak Gelir- Maram al-Masri (2014).Sonsuzluk (Infinity) Natasa Bajic (2014). Kazınmış Işık (The Engraved Light) Militsa Yeftimiyevic Lilic (2014). Kara Güne Kaside- The Odd to Black Days) Stevka Smitran. Tutkunun Kanatlarında- On the Wings of Desire- Sappho


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