LEYLA IŞIK

 

LEYLA IŞIK

 

How Blue Life Seems To Be

 

They don’t feel how much pain you have at your heart

The bitter residue of waiting would not be appreciated

The mirror becomes your company in your loneliness

As you reckon that you are a captive inside four walls

Walls multiply, and the corners replicate

You get drowned in the muteness of time

Shadows swathe you being concerned

You would see half smile, half grief in their eyes

Halved faces of the half-life come into focus

And the traces of a life you consider a sin appear on their faces

If only we could break the chains at our souls…

If only there would not be handcuffs on our hands

And shackles on our feet,

If only the curtains of our eyes would be opened

Then we would see the life so much blue

 

Turkish Translation by Mesut Şenol

 

 

Living

 

Does growing up with fear amount to living?

By imprisoning freedom in the apples of your eyes

By silencing the voice of your heart

Feeling its pain to the bone.

If this amounts to living

If it means to increase fear,

Fettering enlightened thoughts heavily

Swearing

If it is about inaudible screaming, the one we cannot hear about

Unseen resistance cases

And if they are all about terrifying cases of silence

Then do not consider that you had a decent living.

Aimless breathing

Cannot amount to living

Living

Means feeling

Producing

Living

Means  f r e e d o m  in ideas

 

English Translation by Mesut Şenol

 

 

Shadow

 

Some nickels in the world of fantasy

Summer and winter fly over their facility

There is no flab nor its shadow

Humans without shade exist inside life

Shadows of some take two steps forward,

two steps backwards by some

As long as humans have got their shadow

Out front or behind

Whether on the right, left tor in the middle

Instead of being without a shadow

Isn’t the shadow evidence of existence?

Even though you exist during midday

Could there be a shadow if there is no light…

When I got up this morning

My shadow was guarding me at the bedside

It opened its eyes to life

It wandered all day long with me

When my day got darkened, then my shadow said goodbye.

Maybe a bit hopeless

A bit pessimistic, it wandered and wandered

Nevertheless

I lit a light for my hopes

Then my shadow

Happened to be out of my depth

 

English Translation by Mesut Şen

 

LEYLA IŞIK