Sunday, July 1, 2018

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

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