Poetryzine Magazine presents the selected poems by the Turkish poet Ahmet Yalcinkaya
Touch
Your glance is my longing your dream my daydream
I caress you gently on the rose petals
You are my sun in daytime at night my crescent
Like a fairy engraved on the bright canvas
You grab me when I look at your picture
Oh lord of the water, lord of the colour
I wish I could be just a ball in your hands
I wish rolling I could catch your nice shadow
How high is your glory how high your great heart
This is why you so much resemble the rose
Do not touch me therefore, do not burn your slave
Open a simple door at once in my dream
I caress you gently on the rose petals
Neither touching nor keeping off is my state
Love
I come every morning to the beginning of this street
thinking that you will pass from here
I wait, wait, and wait...
when you are seen from far
my heart does not fit to its cage,
tulips bloom in me...
an inexplicable warmth embraces my body
I burn from top to toe...
I do not see who is on the street, I cannot see.
I do not see the trees
and when you approach
freezes my blood, freezes my mind
freezes my soul...
everything freezes in me
you just pass by,
it does not change anything whether I exist or not
it does not matter for you, for the world
or for the sun
when I return home
I carry a dream with me...
there is still a reason again
to overcome the dark and cold night
still a reason for me,
another reason to reach tomorrow morning,
I will run again,
I will run again the following morning
to the beginning of the same street
Translated into English by Richard Mildstone
From the memories of an esteemed bird
whenever I took a mountain with me as pillion rider
to take out with hope,
black one of the winds was hitting my breast with rage,
I was used to it so I never thought on what will happen
this wind which is from a tribe not liking me
this wind which adds me to its blacklist
thought of me as an enemy, really
was blowing against me, at me roaring
but my intention was good in fact I swear
very good what was in my mind, oh dear
if I had known what I did to the sky
why this sad headsman is waiting close to me
it is all right actually do not count my wonder
I am only a simple spirit who struggles for the skies
who lived a happy life in this transitory life will remember well
the heaven was blue before, blue most of the time
and babies were not afraid when they looked to the sky,
why don’t understand this all listening ones
why don’t they believe the words of an esteemed bird…
there is no rule you see not to penetrate the black clouds
up and then we passed to have a breath when gasping
I didn’t know that I blasted without being aware
the foundation of modernity, the self of development
it is said after all that everybody is equal in these times
can this be a reason now to extract my tooth
there is something fishy here since clouds belong to all
if I had known why they decided to flay my skin
why most of them have their head in the clouds
if I had known only
Translated from Turkish by A. Edip Yazar
*Ahmet Yalcinkaya is a Turkish award-winning poet, engineer, scientist, economist and translator. He was born on December 3, 1963 in Giresun, Turkey. He studied engineering, robotics, management, business, physics and divinity at various levels from associate to doctorate at Turkish, US and Swedish universities. He lives and works mainly in Turkey and Central Asia, but also in other geographies, and continues his studies, researches and teachings in Sweden and Turkey.
His poems, essays, letters, interviews, and poetry translations have been published in local and international newspapers and journals. He has received several awards. For a short time in 1995, he edited and published the literary journal Mevsim (The Season). Some of his poems have been translated into more than 15 languages.
He has published 6 collections of poetry and prepared an English poetry anthology with Richard Mildstone. Has also many works in technical and management fields additional to his literary collections.