ERGİN GÜNÇE
 

A FLOWER MUCH AS TURKEY

I washed myself splashing cold water
The intention on my face is a love poem

Sunflower
Flower of silver, season of melons and water-melons
Crocus: flower of the end of rain
The flowers we find just as spring begins

A Rose is a rose and so is a Rose
That's alI understand in this matter

The crops grew golden. We harvested and autumn came
The flower of girls I loved in the past
We couldn't kiss each other, the flower that brought out
She stood like a colt, a flower like a coltish girl

        I'm registered by the police so I'm told ho-ho
        The flower of being registered by the police

A Flower that is an invitation to love
They decorate their skirts giggling
The flower of a pillow in the house of a town magistrate
The knee-flower. The most shameful words of Turkish
The flower of the Widow, Sister-in-law, our Bride-groom
The flower of our Brother-in-Law become shameful flowers

Your face flowers as I comb my hair
The flower that blooms as you smooth out your dress
A flower is an invitation and often one cannot go
Since you have a lot of work at the bureau
        I've got a photograph even at the American police, hah
        Who's the police and who's the thief, where's the home-owner

You're good, my love, impatient and patient
Perhaps peace is reached by a battle
Because what makes love work
Is the founding assembly of anger
The flower of speeding up history

There is Hungarian red in your hair
Hand-written Korans
And the Circassianism on my cheeks
And a lot of other flowers
     You ought to be registered too hey
     You're good, so you're good, patient and impatient

Women's gathering, the flower of sherbet
Itcameonthewingofawhitebird and my sleep
Which is a lovely flower always
Playful female readers of the Koran
Merchants, wireless operators, slipper-makers
All complete the flower of this town in my mind
Its public bath smells of pickles every day

So they dance like that on weddings
Their eyes look at the ceilings, the walls,
The faded love-flower of villages
How long their weddings are, the flowers of the Best Man
The bridegroom takes a shot out of the window
The family of the bride comb their beards bashfully
A flower of smoke is released into the sky
     Whether we're registered or not my love ohho
     We've washed each other many times

A sunfiower
The flower on the face of those who've done a good job
The flower on the eye-brow of the independence
War A five-thousand-year-oId commander

You who are so brave
The flower of refined shyness
You go to the mountain when they say get going
The flower in the mouths of those who say go
The flower of hope
A flower much as Turkey
     The intention on your face is love's flower
     A co-rising is the flower in your heart
 

Translated by Gürdal Yurdal - Michaels and Richard McKane
 
 

ANA SAYFAYA - BACK