MURATHAN MUNGAN
(1955)

Gold and SiIk

And Mohammed said:
"This gold in my one hand
and this silk in my other,
I forbid to men of my kin"

and Ihe brigands' pillage starts with gold holding
a strangle on silk routes
all brigrands seized
all the gold

         (and eyes of menkin, and caress of menkin turned
         silken. Hair of men and things and pearlbeaded
         beards, their lust and violence went silken.
So wherever they touch turned silkenpale)

Each sin was sealed in gold. To seal tight what makes
man a man and woman a woman, bodies were locked in clothes
and clothes in chests.
Behold lhis silk route sealed through hadiths
that led mankind to nylon, orlon and polyurethane and
made him the civilizer of synthetics
a wizened mirage in the deserts of mystery
replaced reality.

And the word was:
'twixt man and woman shall lie
fringe of silk
fire of gold
each man's flesh shall with them be heneeforth damned
and what of Ihe alchemist unto his own flesh
who wears the gold and dons the silk...

when: would he go?ÉÉÉÉ. so he might know the private sins
                                          and public merits of the history
                                          of ownership

for gold and silk were
forbidden to men .......ÉÉÉ so he might know the lust of
                                        banditry and damnation
                                                     --which is black and lily--
for silk routes were
charted and gold quarries
marked on maps of the
flesh. Then the
caravanserais and slave
markets, domed hamams
and dark dungeons......                so merchant cities might process
                                               the burning pelt of the tiger
                                               all tigers retreated to the jungle
                                               each crouched in its own mystery

tiger and jungle, jungle
and night, night and man,
man and self were
transposed................                      and each guise knew night to be
                                                 of silk and death to be golden.
                              the middle age in the middle of each age!
                              Iet Ihe wheels of written histories
                              turn while vultures reign over corpses
                              plunder loot and murder sweep
                              the realm of our intimacies

he who wears the gold and dons the silk... shall face the fringe and the fire.

December, 1982

Translated by Mufit Ozdes

Shadow

it's a shadow, blue
colours insatiate in hue
falling on the heart, shadows

was it love --- or something else
the northern mists, frozen silver
--- much too soon for everything
to ebb into remembrance

now nightfall comes early
with shadows always the same length

Translated by Jean Efe

 

ANA SAYFAYA - BACK