HAYDAR ERGULEN

ONCE A TAILOR
wear me out, make a tailor 
of what's left of me, so there is no 
try-on! the aching and hurting skin 
makes the body undo the stitches


I was a tailor once, in meagre times 
I had a shop, my first shirt 
flew from my skin too soon, such desire 
now foreign to my heart


cut me out some rain from your skin 
right where we grew apart, those scissors 
left the memory rusty! underground 
the button, no skin but solitude


desire's now oversized

Translated by Sehnaz Tahir



CARDBOARD SUITCASE
again a paper winter and cardboard suitcase 
you're like locals who think the cherry a fruit

"Alice in the Cities" a remote child 
is our new captain: hey out there 
we've got lots of water here, too, 
don't forget to bring your ships when you come!

I guess the sea fits some cities 
like a word stuck in the wrong language, 
missionaries seem to take the orange away 
any child whose dreams are robbed 
from other children would be remote

I guess the orange is the reason 
why the child has lost himself homesick for the cherry

they think the child is ill, that when he passes 
under the moon, he'll turn blonde 
the child has his stars, I guess, and his garden, too, 
if only they'd give him some water there 
and launch his cherryship in the desert inside him...

I guess you didn't see the desert for the sandstorm 
a pity, we hadn't seen a stranger for so long 
even Alice had come, the sea was translated 
to a foreign tongue, the child wore a blonde mask 
was going to forgive the orange, 
if the salt between your two lips 
hadn't collected so much in your words 
the wind would've blown twice in the same sentence 
and the second time blown the poem off the paper

don't take the cardboard suitcase on the ship, 
sail off to the cherry! remote child 
go to the city and sing us all!

Translated by Mel Kenne - Saliha Paker

ANA SAYFAYA / BACK