Best Culprits Poems
Cops are the state in uniform
Umpires bribed to play the devil's game
Law compromised by blind norm
Police that brings democracy to shame
Revenue and bribe are human flaws
Interdict this justice and free the poor
Trodden down by the oppressors'cause.
Shame on your silence, your dinner of gore!
ii
Is this revenge for tresspassing at a tree
Or for the cross our fee
I am not candidate for earth's mystery
My solution is no more misery.
What have we become, have gone back
To the primeval night
The bruising dungeon and the gory rack?
So much of trust in flight
From policemen doing political cleansing
And tending lame excuse
The curriers of the guns are pretending
The law inflicts on us abuse.
There goes the wachman, there goes crime
The killer killing all the time.
In the valley of the culprits
be patient.
Remain planted on your legs
to be struck
by the newcomers and leaving them
never look behind you,
so that each one can see
the hairstyle on the nape of your neck.
In the valley of the culprits
while insults fuse
do not say anything, especially
make like the nightingale which ate a blackberry
while the human one depreciates.
The bump at the end of your nose
must not have an impact on your spirit.
Know that your language burns if you eat while pricking
and your backyard burns if you speak bitterly.
Above all
forget your mother, and your father.
It is not necessary to worry about their fate
or that they are weakened physically
and drag themselves along.
Do not say anything.
Drop...
Let your efforts break down.
Let the mast be reversed...
Carry on your way simpering.
If you see a fallen friend
above all have no feeling
no pity
and if you have envy, give him another kick.
Do you know that nobody is thinking of you at this moment?
If you come across a large turkey
cut its throat without saying anything to anybody
and eat it!
Have no panic, remain still
where you are well hidden!
In any event
You are in the valley of the culprits.
You will be viewed badly if you work much.
You will be driven out if you speak the truth.
You will be crushed
if you go the way of love.
You will be beaten in various ways
if you resist tyranny.
You know
that there are things not to be neglected.
In any event
you are in the valley of the culprits
Be pitiless!
You know that integration is spoken about uniquely,
that at least your indentity card is like theirs.
One demands it from you insistently.
If in spite of all you do not like
all that I have just said
do what you want, act according to your desires
as well as your accomplishments.
One never knows
Perhaps you will be accepted!
Üzeyir Lokman ÇAYCI
Paris, le 04.11.2004
Traduit par by Yakup YURT en français
French free verse translated into English free verse
by Joneve McCormick – 05.12.2004
When you look in the mirror, who do you see?
Does the reflection starring back, remind you of me?
I hope it's the latter, for your safety at best,
To live like I lived, is the ultimate test.
I answered an ad, promising fortune and fame,
Naively unaware, that it was all a game,
To use and abuse my body and mind,
They took away everything I owned in time.
I was told I'd see my name up in lights,
On this I concentrated and centered my sights,
Being coached to undress made me very uneasy,
As I posed for the camera, though the pictures were cheesy.
I embarrassed my family and friends, I know,
If I could turn back time, to my old life I'd go.
I was caught in a web of deception and lies,
Towards everyone around me, I feared and despised,
Being hooked on drugs, and enslaved to it's power,
In pictures I looked like a sick wilting flower.
At 17, I succumbed to an over-dose of drugs,
Sold to me by some ruthless old thugs,
I leave you my legacy, 'DO NOT WHAT I DO,'
With my life now over, breathe's a message for you.
Be content with your life, and thank God for it,
Those prowlers on the net, are evil culprits,
Keep your head in your books, be the best you can be,
When you feel yourself slipping, just think about me.
When you look in the mirror, NOW who do you see?
I hope the reflection reminds you of me,
Yes my life is now over, but my legacy lives on,
PLEASE DON'T EVER USE YOUR LIFE AS A PAWN!
To relax me I was fed some "tiny red pills,"
Going back to that time still gives me the chills,
Soon the pills weren't enough, and they gave me some "dust,"
Staying numb to my surroundings, I FELT I MUST!
The promise of fortune and fame was met,
My pictures were scattered all over the net,
The most mischievous of culprits,
A tough veil over its secrets;
Devilishly keeps patrolling incognito
For the unilateral contracts it enters into.
The Eternally Incommunicado;
But easily us reaching without ado,
No signature endorsing after a collection;
Merchandise shipping to abysmal direction,
The reason why I can’t praise its business empire,
Indeed, any transaction with no umpire.
Fallout of Eve’s naivety,
And unwitting acceptance of Free Captivity,
After “a Do-this-and-not-that” instruction,
Making allowance for reckless decision,
Its fulfillment the handiwork of Cherubims,
Behind leaving their Seraphims,
For a continual swinging of fire-vomiting swords,
That must implement God’s voiced words.
Today, my ugliest frowns at sabotaging spade,
And the longest sigh for being a mortal made.
At a young age, they start to rape.
It is a disaster in the Cape.
At 15 he starts to rape.
There is no way to escape.
At 15 he rapes the kids in the home.
They are close like bees in a honeycomb.
The grandparents in the house
living like blind mice.
The parents are all drug addicts,
living off others like ticks.
Their kids are thrown away,
their lives have gone astray.
Their kids have been vandalised,
they have been bastardised
by a 15-year-old boy.
He is not a stable boy.
Grandpa and Grandma turned a blind eye.
How could they turn a blind eye?
For three years they ignored it,
even though they were in the cockpit.
The grandparents turned a blind eye.
What standard did they apply?
Their kids are drug addicts,
living off others like ticks.