Friend, You'Re Not the Guilty One

Friend, you’re not the guilty one The guilty ones are the evenings See how they drag you down into this obscurity... Trouble not yourself Everyday’s "Love’s Labour Lost" Vanishes away Your eyes have learned The meaning of love anyway Learn how not to remember Every point of suffering. Remember not those eyes, those eyes Have gone and they’ve enticed you into smoky cafés Don’t go and believe your eyes, they're just not as sharp as they used to be Friend, because you aren’t the guilty one, The guilty ones are hopes Leaving you to the shadows. So what’s the use of fussing If they’ve never understood The poems your own baggy eyes Have forgotten? ... You’re alone in an unknown beyond Your eyes are alone as well ... You’re not guilty, friend The guilty ones are hopes Leaving you alone in darkness. Üzeyir Lokman ÇAYCI İstanbul, 20.02.1975 Translated from Turkish to French by Yakup Yurt followed by English translation by Richard Vallance