AYTEN MUTLU

AYTEN MUTLU

AMPHORA

you asked me the name of time

an ocean's death was lying in your sound

time and me,we are so resembled to each other, said i

without being fed up,we are carrying  cold stones

to a river, drifting a life.

i said "start my eyes"

with the voice of a passenger who's lost his name

start the alphabet of that old journey

for each story, a passenger is required

there must be someone, reading tears

in an amphora's broken heart.

TRANSLATED BY TOZAN ALKAN

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...

TRANSLATED BY BAKI YIĞIT

LET’S DRINK

autumn is here

the sun and wine are witnesses

and the vine leaves yellowing on branches

sharpened knives of light  are witnesses

to the regrets we’ve gathered

from the vineyard of time

let’s go to her today, to time

to the red Goddess who covers up our memory

with her tulle skirt

we’ve somehow 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 are leaning 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 by slowly

Like a moment of Vuslat*

*Vuslat: reunion with one's beloved

TRANSLATED BY BAKI YIĞIT

REDBUD

protect your memories from redbuds

if the evening is becoming ravelled like a delayed rain

if the lights remaining from an extinguished star

are being broken on the hidden side of the moon

if a stark naked spark is circulating

on your skin left over from the fires

like a cold shiver

protect rivers from your tears

if time has become a garrulous old man

protect your loneliness from dreams

protect the tired wind inside you

from the beauteous wings of

a bird suddenly perching on your balcony

a bird suddenly flying from your balcony

but if a wild redbud that has remained from springs

suddenly blossoms

on the yellow pages of an old novel

never forget to meet with your heart

over the ruins of a forgotten love

TRANSLATED BY BAKI YIĞIT

THE ANSWER

an undiscovered ruin

a worm digging the earth

a chemical tube accumulating tears

suddenly growing grass

at the bottom of a semi-ruined wall

or an empty dress

longing for touching a naked shoulder

the dream seller’s broken vehicle

a death news all of a sudden

the separation scenes

recorded one after the other on the same film strip

cornered stones placed in streets

the desert walking to hearts

burning cornered stones placed in streets

oh, why, why is

human so far from human

don’t lies make words bleed?

which sin do the loves we killed

by forgetting

by being forgotten wait for?

baby swallow addicted to the sky

spreads its wings and fall down from its nest

always that no mask on the face of life

do not expect any other answer, here is life

remorse and remorse again

a turn of delusions, a mistake

what a pity!

extistence is a loneliness only

TRANSLATED BY BAKI YIĞIT

ADİEU

if you go away

leaning against a centuries-old tree my body

will shaken from the root of

I'll shout with all my voice

ın answering woods to days

there will be nothing left

my voice to another

miners will light their's long lights and

proudly move down

there

deep into the mountains

as the world turned like an hour

everything before falling into darkness

light fades away

before the sky's lock is closed

only the druid and death

will see me

if you go away

for the last time kiss the colors

caress the sounds

walk on water mill

when closing the curtains time

ancestors and the gods

had forbidden

peace

waits me there

it is a shadow flying

made from the rapture of fever, captivity  and freedom

blue power's origin

in unbreakable circle's border

be resurrected with breath of dagger

be a black eagle

she is the painful mother of serenity

for past, future, moments  and life's

stop you for a little while  when the sun goes down

remember your dreams

dedicated life for your dreams

hear the breath of the wind in

take your sword  sharpened with your dreams

to present

to offer with your blood

with bone of an handful, dust and light

burning

disconsolate, unsparing

to magnificent beauty of death's

to present it to underground's prince

the lights in the hands of the wizard

time lights it's long burn

in the woods

dark hurtle it's  arrow

hold on

fire will burn now

the sacred dance of the laws will end

rain will come with trompet to bury

your anger

which is boiling water's, the blood's and ice's

and soil's sister

in the crystal maze of the world

what revenge, what a sorrow

what leaves blowing in

what silence ...

there will be nothing

nothing

my voice to another

I'll shout with all my power

ADİEU...ADİEU

TRANSLATED BY AYSU ERDEN

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