Poems by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Translated by Aysel K. Basci
The Winter Garden
In that winter garden, how beautifully
The roses slept while working secretly
To prepare a spring for you.
The shoots and branches
Like the beauties in old romances
Were still buried in gloom and reveries,
As if singing lullabies to unborn babies.
Like a mother’s womb
The air was warm and loaded.
Like well-yeasted dough
The soil was quietly breathing.
Clearly, at great depths
In the dark cellar of creation,
Some things were happening
Similar to what happens
Among the stars on a dark night;
Lightning struck blue and bright,
Redder than blood, quieter than white,
More enraged than purple,
Readied one after another, like successive dawns,
Were the violet’s sorrow and the rose’s delight.
The air was full of such joy,
Hand in hand at the future’s doorstep
Everything was smiling.
Kış Bahçesi
Ne güzeldi o kış bahçesinde
Güllerin çok derinlerde çalışan uykusu
Sana bir bahar hazırlamak için.
Dallar, filizler, eski masal dilberleri gibi
Hüzne ve hülyaya gömülmüş
Doğmamış çocuklara
Ninni söylüyorlardı sanki…
Ana rahmi gibi sıcak ve yüklü idi hava
İyi mayalanmış hamur gibi
Gizli nabızlarla atıyordu toprak.
Belli ki çok derinlerde
Oluşun ışık sızmaz mahzenlerinde
Bir şeyler oluyordu, bir şeyler karanlık
Gecede yıldızlar arasında
Olup biten şeylere benzer;
Şimşekler çakıyordu mavi, berrak
Kandan daha kırmızı, beyazdan daha sessiz
Mordan daha hiddetli,
Üst üste fecirler gibi hazırlanıyordu,
Gülün sevinci, menekşenin kederi.
Bu sevinçle yüklüydü hava,
Geleceğin kapısında el ele vermiş
Gülümsüyordu her şey.
Blue, So Blue, Was the Sky
Blue, so blue, was the sky.
The clouds were white, so white.
It was an unusual summer,
Full of emptiness and wonder.
The light and the rain together,
They were odd, beautiful and then somber.
A long song, mournful for a while,
And the roses bloomed with your smile.
White, so white, were the clouds.
The shadows were deep and misty.
Ah, those winds, blowing at all times,
With the sleeping flowers of all kinds.
In mid-afternoon,
Languid glances exchanged
Under a chinar in a purple light spree
Or under a chestnut tree.
Reflected in the morning’s mirror,
Your sudden smile made me glad.
And the sorrow between our glances
Drew me totally mad.
Now, who knows where you are?
Though the nights still belong to you,
Your footfall sounds on the stairs around the clock,
And your shadow rests on the harbor’s rock.
Mavi, Maviydi Gökyüzü
Mavi, maviydi gökyüzü
Bulutlar beyaz, beyazdı
Boşluğu ve üzüntüsü
İçinde ne garip yazdı…
Garip, güzel, sonra mahzun
Işıkla yağmur beraber,
Bir türkü ki gamlı, uzun,
Ve sen gülünce açan güller,
Beyaz, beyazdı bulutlar,
Gölgeler buğulu, derin;
Ah o hiç dinmeyen rüzgâr
Ve uykusu çiçeklerin.
Mor aydınlıkta bir çınar
Veya kestane dibinde;
Mahmur süzülen bakışlar
İkindi saatlerinde…
Birden gülümseyen yüzün
Sabahların aynasında
Ve beni çıldırtan hüzün
İki bakış arasında.
Kim bilir şimdi nerdesin?
Senindir yine akşamlar;
Merdivende ayak sesin
Rıhtım taşında gölgen var.
Autumn
Let the leaves’ colors of sun and death
Keep painting the motionless ponds.
Listen to your heart, look at the horizon.
Don’t ask which sorrow turned the season so grim,
As long as the whining winds ravish your soul
With their sounds—calming and full of rhythm.
Let the season and the sorrow, side by side and quiet,
Wander in my deceived, broken heart.
You give your joy to the blowing winds.
Sonbahar
Durgun havuzları işlesin, bırak
Yaprakların güneş ve ölüm rengi,
Sen kalbini dinle, ufuklara bak.
Düşünme mevsimi inleten hangi
Elemdir, mest etsin ruhunu yeter
Esen rüzgarların durgun ahengi.
Yan yana sessizce mevsimle keder
Hicrana aldanmış kalbimde gezsin
Esen rüzgarlara sen neşeni ver.
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-1962) was a Turkish poet, novelist, literary scholar, essayist, and intellectual widely regarded as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Turkish literature. He was a professor of aesthetics, mythology and literature at the University of Istanbul. Although he died 60 years ago, his writing and poetry remains very popular. His novel “The Time Regulation Institute” is considered one of the best novels in Turkish literature. With this novel, Tanpınar became one of the two Turkish novelists whose works became Penguin Classics.
Aysel K. Basci is a nonfiction writer and literary translator. She was born and raised in Cyprus and moved to the United States in 1975. Aysel is retired and resides in the Washington DC area. Her writing and translations have appeared in the Columbia Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, Critical Read, Aster(ix) Journal, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Bosphorus Review of Books and elsewhere.
16 August 2022
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