Tuesday, September 1, 2020

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


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