LEYLA IŞIK

LEYLA IŞIK

To My Peace Frame(Work)

Come and take me away

To a place where blue and green are found

Frame it with the color of white

Nail it in the air with the wings of the birds

There I shall be happy.

I shall find peace in that infinity

By watching the sea

I shall take a rest in its depths.

Every night, with the foaming waves

I shall get to the shore, to that particular place

The beach shall embrace

With its moist sand grains

Oleanders shall smile

To greet with their pinky colors

By becoming a breeze

I shall wrap your body with the sea’s moisture

The waves shall sing the most beautiful songs

Crickets shall accompany with their chime

I shall be uniting with you

As the sun would be rising after kissing goodbye to the shore

I shall come back silently

Into my Peace Frame

Suspended in the air…

English Translation by Mesut Şenol

My Izmir

Each passing day, love for Izmir grows in my heart

This town happens to be an irreplaceable passion in me

Every face, every scene is familiar to my eyes

As I miss her

She seems like a river overflowing with longing

My Izmir, the pearl of the Aegean, changed a lot

What did not change in fact

Her love in my heart

Screams of the seagulls in my ears

I just find myself at Gümrük at uncertain times

My dreams are shaken in the rhythm of the waves

I used to enjoy immensely the short conversations

In the boats commuting between Konak and Karşıyaka.

I know how to love Izmir and to be fallen in love with Izmir.

I have lived so many memories in the arms of time.

Sometimes I was sad

Sometimes I was happy when I looked around from Kadifekale

Sometimes

I went around along Kordon avenue like a loose canon

Sometimes

I had conversations with waves at the pier

What attracts me in this town?

With the perpetual deep longing for her

Had I not harbored that crazy passion for love

Would it be possible to house her love in my heart

At this faraway town…

A window opened into my life in Izmir

Her beauties I watched to my heart’s content

My memories I tenderly beaded up at the moment

Seem to have become a necklace at Hisarönüneighborhood

It was a pretext for my purchasing a book

From mobile book sellers

I used to find peace

When I had a gaze at the sea…

Kids were recognizing our joy

As we used to sprinkle food from the food tray for pigeons

At present

Those were the days… Should I say like this?

By looking back on

In a song, in a poem, or in a painting

Desperate, hopeful

Saying, yet “one day” for sure

Shall I shed tears

For this town with her I am in love?

Living is great when there is a longing for reunion

There is moisture of the bitter sweet memories in my eyes

Even though I would be traveling

Hundreds of beautiful towns

Nevertheless, with its unending longing

My Izmir occupies a very special place in me...

English Translation by Mesut Şenol

Fear/ I Comment

My hopes are lost in this town

Faceless mirrors are all around.

I abandoned lightless loveless dingy places…

Every morning, my part, which is you, makes love with fear…

I wake up with broken glasses.

On my hands, the dye of unsolved murder.

I fear.

I fear the night which took my face from my hands

I fear the blind birds

Running after my clamor.

In every place I pass

I drop a bit of fire left from you

And a sense of lostness on every cobblestone…

Every stone is embedded in their own love.

The walls I leant on and assumed strong went to ruin,

Their plasters and

Mortars of humanity were peeled off.

All colors were worn off,

Colorless photos for each are in the albums

I shed tears just to spite rains.

The white of my eyes gets mixed with their black color.

Time unties its knots at my heart.

At the break of dawn.

There is somebody coming!

I can hear

These are the footsteps of hope…

I no longer

Do/fear.

English Translation by Mesut ŞENOL

LEYLA IŞIK