• Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Book Reviews
  • Translations
  • About
  • Awards
  • Submissions
  • Buy LAR
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Book Reviews
  • Translations
  • About
  • Awards
  • Submissions
  • Buy LAR

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



Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Aunt Liesel by Derek Updegraff
  • Poems by Cho Ji Hoon Translated by Sekyo Nam Haines
  • Extinctions by Sharmistha Mohanty Review by Vedant Srinivas
  • Horizon Song by John A. Nieves
  • Little Bits of Paper by Martin Piñol

Recent Comments

  • Judith Fodor on Three Poems by David Keplinger
  • Marietta Brill on 2 Poems by Leah Umansky

Categories

  • Award Winners
  • Blooming Moons
  • Book Reviews
  • Electronic Lit
  • Fiction
  • Flash Fiction
  • Interviews
  • LAR Online
  • Nonfiction
  • Poetry
  • Translations
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Posts

  • Aunt Liesel by Derek Updegraff
  • Poems by Cho Ji Hoon Translated by Sekyo Nam Haines
  • Extinctions by Sharmistha Mohanty Review by Vedant Srinivas
  • Horizon Song by John A. Nieves
  • Little Bits of Paper by Martin Piñol
© 2014 Los Angeles Review. All Rights Reserved. Design and Developed by NJSCreative Inspired by Dessign.net