Poets corner.

[zan]

[zan]

“Tomorrow is the anniversary establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
come and join the celebrations of the safe haven for the Turkish Cypriot community
long my she live and protect us from those who want to do us harm”.

“I wish we were all celebtating the united cyprus that protects all her cypriot citizens
irrelevant of language or religion”.

“Had that opportunity in 1960 my friend
didn't quite work out”

“I know but............still..........i wish”

[Birkibrisli]

Perhaps we should leave this corner untainted by Cyprus problems,Zan...

Here is another poem by the great Orhan Veli


POEM WITH FLEAS


What a puzzle this is!
The world isn't as you please;
We tell our troubles to everyone;
They listen only to the gun.

Some have things to do,
Some have no underwear or shoes,
They have mouths and noses and ears
But most suffer from fears.

Some believe in the prophet,
Some wear a gold chain and a locket,
Some become scribes, writing books,
Some cheat their cooks.

Some carry a sword,
Some heed the word,
Some chase women at night
Without a hangover by daylight.

Is this how the design should be,
An elephant swallow a flea?
While seven people in a house
Make do with the share of a mouse.

To be brief, it's confusing.
The rich the poor are using.
We sent God a letter,
It got lost in the shredder.




Orhan Veli
Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 1989

[Birkibrisli]

I, ORHAN VELI


I, Orhan Veli.
The famous author of the poem
``Suleyman Effendi, may he rest in peace,''
Heard that you are curious
About my private life.
Let me tell you:
First I am a man, that is,
I am not a circus animal, or anything like that.
I have a nose, an ear,
Though they are not shapely.
I live in a house,
I have a job.
Neither do I carry a cloud on my head
Nor a stamp of prophecy on my back.
Neither am I modest like King George of England
Nor aristocratic like the recent
Stable keeper of Celal Bayar.
I love spinach.
I am crazy about puffed cheese pastries.
I have no eyes
For material things,
Really not.
Oktay Rifat and Melih Cevdet
Are my best friends,
And I have a lover,
Very respectable.
I can not tell her name.
Let literary critics find it.
I also keep busy with unimportant things,
Only between projects,
How can I say,
Perhaps I have a thousand other habits,
But what is the point of listing them all.
They just resemble these.




Orhan Veli
Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 1989


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Birkibrisli]

And here is a little poem by an unknown Greek poet


Walls
Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.

And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;

for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.

But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.
Imperceptibly they shut me from the outside world.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1896)

[Birkibrisli]

Waiting for the Barbarians
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.

Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and sits at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive
their chief. Indeed he has prepared
to give him a scroll. Therein he inscribed
many titles and names of honor.

Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.

Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.

Why all of a sudden this unrest
and confusion. (How solemn the faces have become).
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all return to their homes, so deep in thought?

Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.

And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1904)

[cypezokyli]

bir, since you mentioned kafavis heres two of his most famous

The City
You said: "I'll go to another country, go to another shore,
find another city better than this one.
Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong
and my heart -like something dead- lies buried.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I've spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally."

You won't find a new country, won't find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You'll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighbourhoods, turn grey in these same houses.
You'll always end up in this city. Don't hope for things elsewhere:
there's no ship for you, there's no road.
Now that you've wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you've destroyed it everywhere in the world.

Constantine P. Cavafy

[cypezokyli]

ITHAKA

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean

An alternative translation of "Ithaka"

Constantine P. Cavafy

(and more here : http://cavafis.compupress.gr/index2.htm )

[Birkibrisli]

Thanks for the link above Cypez...
Now I can get really drunk on Kavafis

[Alexios]

Dont get hooked on Kavafi now Bir!! He was a well knowm homosexual.... Below is one of his erotic poems, definately not written about a woman....


At The Cafe Door

Something they said beside me
made me look toward the cafe door,
and I saw that lovely body which seemed
as though Eros in his mastery had fashioned it,
joyfully shaping its well-formed limbs,
moulding its tall build,
shaping its face tenderly,
and leaving, with a touch of the fingers,
a particular impression on the brow, the eyes, the lips.

[Alexios]

And here is yet another...

One Night

The room was cheap and sordid,
hidden above the suspect taverna.
From the window you could see the alley,
dirty and narrow. From below
came the voices of workmen
playing cards, enjoying themselves.

And there on that ordinary, plain bed
I had love's body, knew those intoxicating lips,
red and sensual,
red lips so intoxicating
that now as I write, after so many years,
in my lonely house, I'm drunk with passion again.

[Cyprus rules!]

Oh yes, I remember kavafi...(Not personally obviously.. )

I studied his poems for my Greek A'level...he was a brilliant poet...

[Cyprus rules!]

[zan]

[cypezokyli]

tranferring this one from the favorite song thread , dedicated to the giritli turks in our forum

heimerinoi kylimvites


kemal ozbairi

He lived in Germany, my friend Kemal,
near a merchant port,
But muslim Cretan was he
and so were all his folk.

They left for Anatolia,
but why should i lie,
they spoke Cretan fluently,
better than you and I.

To Strasbourg we both went,
it must have been July,
a step away we lived, from Euro-parliament.

We played our instruments
around a big square,
near an old mahalla,
and we didnt care.

the turkish cretans had
many lyra players among them
to play for all those immigrants
working in the factories

They came from Anatolia,the Ionian shores,
from Belgiun and from elsewhere,
to work for German lords.

Souvla, pastourma,roasted meat
and fine mezeklik
and real Cretan lunguage
that spoke of sevtalik.

Around Kemal they used to sit
and he would never fail,
to play Erotokritos and Aretousa's tale.

As Greece and Turkey messed it up,
he died alone in foreign land,
he never managed to set his feet,
on Psiloritis mountain and his beloved Crete....


...........
some info
- erotokritos is a long poem written (i believe) during the time when crete was under the venecians . its a long story - poem , that is over (if i remember correctly) 10 000 verses (each of exactly 15-syllables). we had it in school and i hated it , and then i heard years later with music, and felt in love with it Razz

its a story about the nice and poor guy erotokritos who falls in love with the daughter of the king , called aretousa. you know... a typical love story. Wink

- psiloritis, is a mountain in crete , and it means high - mountain (psilo - oros)

- lyra is the traditional instrument of crete. lyraris (lyraci ? ) is the person who plays the lyra. lyrarides - is the plurar of it.

- i hope i dont need to translate words like "pastourma" "meze" "souvla", mahalas etc... i am also not sure about the word sevdas (it is for sure not greek, could it be turkish ?) . i believe we use it as "pain in the heart" .
also the endings of some words with a "lik" or "klik" is also not greek e.g. mezekliki , sevdaliki ( i assume that it is turkish, but i cannot say if the way we use it is the right way - or if it makes sense )