Long Backwardness Poems

Mehmet Akif Ersoy: Modern English Translations of Turkish Poems

Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (1873-1936) was a Turkish poet, author, writer, academic, member of parliament, and the composer of the Turkish National Anthem.



Snapshot
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

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carving their names on the world’s flesh like scars,
they won’t waste their breath on the news of dead men.
if there are things humans should learn, it is how to
leave their emotions out of the equations...

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Being in the mind of a savage.

All I know is how to act ferociously.
Manipulating the minds of the weak, fearful, and the victims.
Beating them into submissive.
Emasculating the strongest, just to see him break.
Dismiss him of...

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Water rains the philosophies of mums each morning plying jeer can with tough 
faces because the taps have been experiencing months of loneliness in it 
gush. 

The waking of sleepless mums gluing their hope to...

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Mwizi! Mwizi! Mwizi!
Shika uyooooo
2am habitual
I toss my sheets stand by the window
They all speak at once
''Achomweee....''
I wear my walkies and switch my lights

I scrunch my nose
Freezing outside
Ni nani?
My anxiety grows
I join the mob
Fury is forehead...

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Trouble is brewing
Nations are warring
Society is disintegrating
We all need to start praying

Humanity has deserted this land
The sacrifice of the self for the whole
A now defunct creed

Injustice and avarice abound
Where the basket is never full
And envy...

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Rise

Rise!
Rising to embrace the stars in far space
I rise because 
I
	Am
		A
			star

Sparkling
Through
All limitations just to keep
Rising

Even in my darkest hour
I rise
Go ahead, despise me because of my simplicity
But I rise
Go ahead, abuse me cos of my...

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We have murdered morality and raped reality.
Every chicken wants to crow before they grow.
Our boys are hunters and our girls flaunters. 
The future is forgotten and backwardness begotten. 
Our fathers are scavengers and our youths...

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We live in a world 
Where all things are moving
Where nothing halts
Where nothing turns back
Where all that it is is noise

We live in a world
Broken souls grace the streets
Hopeless lives is all that it is
Drive...

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after Odumegwu Ojukwu
after Chinua Achebe 
after Christopher Okigbo 
after Dele Giwa
after Kofi Awoonor
after Kwame Nkrumah 
after Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
after Nelson Mandela 
after Wole  Soyinka 
after Leopold Senghor 
after Flora  Nwapa

I am part of...

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Dancing
There is dancing
On the ground floor of earth
Eternally grateful by the beauty

I am sophisticated heart investor
Flora to flora
Fauna to fauna
I am seeking the lessons of body
No nudity is there
Centripetal gravity force of mind controls heartily...

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Fieldwork is stellar, sexy, or strenuous and sad
Talking values, prolonging childhood
Is not for the faint hearted among S. Africa's "Coloured"
My "township" boasts about acting backward
Using walls for urination, or there on streets
Many walk all day...

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Difficult to sing, but let us chorus  today
Let us all sing  African patriotism song

Africa the golden land of our fathers
Would be exceptionally advanced in all fields
But stewards full of ego, serve self interests
Stewards,...

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TO MY MOM DADA ZOUWAIRATOU M YAUKI
THE TRUEST HAUSA-FULANI

The iron core of the whole family
She stands with the long rooster
First crow which tears up, praying, and
Goes on laboring till the owl grave hoots
Herald the veiling...

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At this very moment lost in life, predictability 
    Mind is a mess chaos reigns, steadfastness 
     Fighting with myself shut out, convertibility 
    Not...

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If do you hate me?
The cause of my colour,
You need to define it,
What is a best colour?
And why?

If do you hate me?
The cause of my religion,
You need to define it,
What is a best religion?
And why?

If...

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R Roseta is famous now, Italian town, beautifully "backward"
O Okinawa, Japan, shared health wonders with Roseta 
S Science proves both sides: Lonely folks "smoke" 15 cigarettes
E Even when they are not smokers - 60 million...

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I turned around
On the march towards tomorrow 
And intensely screen yester-days
With the lens of critical thought
That provoke tears with frowns and a rising smile

Deeds I'll differently do
If time can be backwheeled
And offer a chance of...

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Had we have enough but day
This quagmire were no crime
We would keep mum and forget which train
To board to crush our multifarious pains

You by the Atlantic Ocean’s sides
Should we find: pulling away our plights
Of tactlessness,...

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the past turns to rust
Experience is vast, but change has come fast
For tomorow the future i lust
Burn my past, for a new tomorow i must
Tomorow will i awake???, In God i trust
regret torments my soul,...

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