Birhan Keskin was born in Kırklareli, Turkey, in 1963. She graduated from Istanbul University in 1986 with a degree in sociology. Her first poems began to appear in 1984. From 1995 to 1998 she was joint editor of the small magazine Göçebe. She has since worked as an editor for a number of prominent publishing houses in Istanbul. Her books include: Delilirikler (Crazy Lyrics, 1991), Bakarsın Üzgün Dönerim (I May Return Unhappily, 1994), Cinayet Kışı + İki Mektup (Winter of Murder + Two Letters, 1996), 20 Lak Tablet + Yolcunun Siyah Bavulu (20 Polished Tablets + The Traveler’s Black Suitcase, 1999), and Yeryüzü Halleri (States of the Earth, 2002). These five books were collected by Metis Publishing into Kim Bağışlayacak Beni (Who Will Forgive Me? 2005). Metis publish two further collections, Ba (2005) and Y’ol (Road, 2006), as well as a collection of critical responses to her poetry, Birhan Keskin Şiiri ve Ba (2008). Birhan Keskin was the 2005 winner of Turkey’s prestigious Golden Orange Award for Ba and in 2011 she received the Metin Altıok Poetry Prize for her most recent collection, Soğuk Kazı (2010).
George Messo is a poet, editor and teacher, and a leading translator of Turkish poetry. His many books include From the Pine Observatory (2000), Entrances (2006), and Hearing Still (2009), as well as two books in Turkish: Aradaki Ses (The In-between Voice, 2005) and Avrupa’nın Küçük Tanrıları (The Little Gods of Europe, 2007). His translations include İlhan Berk’s A Leaf about to Fall: Selected Poems (2006), Madrigals (2008), and Berk’s epic poetic trilogy The Book of Things (2009). His anthologies include İkinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant-Garde (2009) and From This Bridge: Contemporary Turkish Women Poets (2010). He has twice been shortlisted for the Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize, and was a Hawthornden Fellow in poetry during 2002. His critical study, Into the Labyrinth: Essays on Modern Turkish Poetry, is forthcoming. Messo is the former editor of Near East Review and in 2008 he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society.
Winter 2011
Table of Contents - Vol. VII, No. 4
Poetry Fiction Translations Reviews
Birhan Keskin
The three poems will appear in Birhan Keskin’s & Silk & Love & Flame, a forthcoming bilingual Turkish/English selection from Arc Visible Poets Series, U.K. in May 2012. The book represents work from Keskin’s first six collections, translated for the first time into English.
I
It all happened
because I am so afraid of flowing to you,
this is why waterfalls also interest me.
... the world was a depressing place, I didn’t love its
war films and samurai as I used to… was I consigning
myself to a vacuum … were wires scratching my skin
and hurting me… I was getting used
to my unhappiness loving you… or else I was bleeding to death...
I had no piece of me left to break into pieces...
Anyway,
my lover was on the other side of the phone eating ruffles.
I broke the wings of my angel,
that’s where I’m coming from. Still don’t you
break the matching glasses again. I was a lunatic,
I believed elements too had souls,
the water’s suicide always came into my mind,
speaking of waterfall,
I was talking madness.
Because I was so afraid of flowing to you like this.
I broke the waterfall’s nerve a little earlier
that’s where I’m coming from.
Remembers neither leaves nor sun
Nor falling from its branch
Its honey like a dried desire within
Still in its place from last autumn.
I won’t talk anymore, I won’t say harsh words
in the morning for a dream I embroider
a flower of pearl on my bosom.
I never knew, what you understood from my words,
I spoke the forest’s frightfulness
the plain’s tranquility silenced
you slept a long sleep, I saw the dream.
Unceasingly I spoke of a path:
I’m water, I didn’t forget my name
I spoke of a mountain I came across
while wandering;
I didn’t meddle with the world’s affairs,
the world does not console me, does not hold me,
wandering around in its dirt
still I came out clean.
I carry a pearl-like flower in my bosom:
this is a spell I had cast against life
I don’t speak anymore, if I broke your heart
know that I’ve fallen beside you.
© George Messo
VE İPEK VE AŞK VE ALEV
I
Sana böyle akmaktan çok korktuğum için
oldu her şey,
şelaleler de bu yüzden ilgilendiriyor beni.
...dünya çok üzücü bir yerdi, savaş filmlerini ve
Samurayları eskisi gibi sevmiyordum.. bir boşluktan
aşağı mı bırakıyordum kendimi.. teller tenimi çizip
canımı mı yakıyordu.. mutsuzluğuma mı alışıyordum
seni severken.. yoksa kan kaybından mı ölüyordum...
Daha fazla parçalanacak parçam yoktu...
Neyse,
sevgilim telefonun öbür ucunda Ruffles yiyordu.
Ben meleğimin kanatlarını kırdım,
ordan geliyorum. Siz yine de ikiz bardakları
kırmayın. Bir deliydim, elementlerin de ruhları
olduğuna inanıyordum,
aklıma suyun intiharı geliyordu hep,
şelale deyince,
divaneliği söylüyordum.
Sana böyle akmaktan çok korktuğum içindi.
Şelalenin sinirini bozdum az önce
ordan geliyorum.
Ne yaprakları hatırlıyor ne güneşi
Ne de düşmüş dalından.
Balı içinde kurumuş bir heves gibi
Duruyor yerinde geçen sonbahardan.
Konuşmam artık, ağır sözler söylemem
bir düş için sabahları göğsüme sedeften
bir çiçek işlerim.
Hiç bilmedim, konuştuklarımdan ne anladın,
ormanın korkunçluğunu söyledim,
ovanın serinliğini sustum,
sen uzun bir uykuyu uyudun, ben düş gördüm.
Durmadan bir yoldan söz ettim:
suyum ben, adımı hiç unutmadım,
dolanıp, bir gün yanına düştüğüm
bir dağdan söz ettim;
dünyanın işine karışmadım,
beni avutmaz dünya, beni tutmaz da,
dolanıp içinde kirinin
yine temiz geldim.
Göğsümde sedeften bir çiçek taşırım:
bir büyü bu, hayata karşı yaptırdım
konuşmam artık, kalbini kırdımsa senin
bil ki yanına düştüm.
