Long Cannonballs Poems

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

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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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Silence and Shouts

I listen to him breathing.  If it’s labored, I ask, “Are you okay?”
And from over the rings of walls of silence he has built around himself, 
He implores, “You hear so poorly,...

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It's always struck me as amazing how folks will buy more lottery tickets as the odds increase, so long as the prize money increases. The recent billion dollar lottery sent the masses into a frenzy--and...

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When I was 4 1/2 years old, 
as abrupt as a spanking, 
my once reliable mother brought home 
a hospital surprise 
with an alien face and 
a blood-darkened eerie belly clip 
that was to suddenly...

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She’s got happy feet,
kicking moist sand in the air
Running in a zig zag line
like a high-flying kite
Nyla is calypso dancing around, 
with her heart floating off the ground
Hearing the trailing away voices of “you’re it...

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It was a sweltering August morn,
The view from the Tonnant was deminished,
By the smoke and sea generated fog.

Her decks were laden with cannonballs,
Brought aboard to parley for the good Doctor,
Accused of being cruel to British...

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In days of old when knights were bold and dungeons were dug deep 
Widely renowned back then was found, a race of hero sheep 
These sheep were strong, these sheep were tough, 
these sheep were...

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The marching band played John Philip Sousa

My daddy held my hand

Lining the streets elbows to my head

My daddy put me on his shoulders, where I could stand

~

The marching marines stopped in front of us

And in...

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If you come to find me 
Look no further than you must
For I will be burning effigies
A conspiracy is afoot
Some might say I spend too much time alone
Too much time in the attic of my...

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The tides of June carry me over yesterday's sparkling
waters to the distant shores preserved in my mind.
Playful summer memories are just a light twinkling 
in my eye, pressed into worn photo albums, I find. 

Hotter...

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many passed by this crag today
to see where the dying soldiers lay
moaning, bleeding, crying for their mothers
perpetrators, victims and all the others

over glazed eyes malevolent with murder
stealing strangers lives like burglars
the honor, the horror, the...

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Imagine this, your heart is racing.
You’re nervous about meeting someone new.
You have so many scenarios running through your head,
But you stay the course.

The excitement flies like butterflies.
The adventures so new, it’s worth every minute
But the...

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They had no army standing tall
no navy with it's mighty ships 
no cannons blasting cannonballs
they had no need for all of this. 
They lived in buoyant, peaceful bliss. 
They were joyful, and seldom sad. 
Great...

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Henry Morgan is my name
Being a pirate is my fame

A landlubber wasn't for me
Fortunes were made at sea

From port and starboard cannons roar
Through Spanish ships cannonballs tore

Strike your colors or face our scorn
Cutlass and pikes...

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for some reason
around your fortress
you’ve built 
insurmountable blockades
and from their safety
you thrive on lashing out
catapulting showers 
of fireballs
and cannonballs

it took a while for me
to realize we were at war
I simply didn’t know
in hindsight it’s been...

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A girl in the crowd takes a selfie.
Her tam o’shanter sparkles
because of the fireworks going off
in the background.
At the gates of Moscow
Tchaikovsky runs away
hands over his ears.
The girl with the cell
is as pretty as her...

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Literally cut off an arm for them
                 shrivelling white bone protruding, screaming from the pale flesh
The ultimate expression of...

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Seaweed, fragmented shell as cannonballs 
in maelstrom hurled upon the shore.
The bellowing wind cast all asunder
as Summer’s shoots from shifting sand were torn.
Such was Autumn’s storm.

The sleet was blown in horizontal sheets
as figures double-bent fought...

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I prophesize that I haven’t a clue what’s going to happen;
While the heavy air squashes my brain like an unresponsive idea.

I ask, what’s the sense of effortlessly trying not to strive
For the impossibility of always...

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I loved you,
though you were a drowning man,
with cannonballs noosed around your ankles
and a whiskey bottle barely in your grasp,
rushing to depths too black to follow.

I loathed you,
though some days still held sunshine,
with a smile...

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Silver blades in deathmatch, sound of thunder, lightning cuts flesh in half.
Robotic feet march, shaking redwood trees, frightening bird wings.
Bobbing heads in claustrophobic helmets, decomposing.
Cannonballs block out the sunny skies — fate’s abysm.*
Fat furry rats...

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Way back then when I was two,
I couldn't even tie my shoe.
But I could stand up on a chair
to retrieve my teddy bear.

Way back then when I was four,
I'd sneak out the doggie door,
cause the...

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as pure as imagination is
(apropos grooving to the word)

imagine this:
drumming words
to 88 keys
rainbow
ending 
into each other
mellowing out
like trane
waters
streaming tears

flowing
sidewalk raise banks
to drains
cascading monk falls
following birds to sea
to be free—
the real macoy

how time flies—
wingless
as it is
leaving...

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Aye, scurvy dog! Take one of those!
as cannonballs deal deadly blows.
A satisfying, savage row:
the bond between the rowers grows.
But rapid fire, be on your toes;
you’re in the open, all exposed!
How quick it ends? Nobody knows,
but...

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