Long Europeans 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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Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...

that clenched another win today
February 20th, 2024 
(eight hundred and ninety yesterdays ago 
since June 13th, 2021)
original crafting date of following poem,
when yours truly 
single handedly trumped computer, 
for umpteenth time,
which saw...

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My jubilant latent, nascent poetic tribute to black history month

Which acknowledgement ought to be year round,
similar to altruistic, humanistic, and philanthropic
unconditional acceptance and respect
crafted with the following words 
mostly written January 23rd, 2023,
cuz I, (a...

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Nascent poetic tribute to black history month...
crafted before onset when people of color  
got acknowledged for twenty eight or nine days
depending if leap year occurred. 

Though I yam Caucasian,
rightful to honor most bitter
racist genocidal...

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Each and every day, mankind search to find out that which exist and that which is to happen., thus the destiny of mankind. it is reality as a human beings to know and understand the...

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Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (yahoo)
jimmied today August 15th, 2022 single handedly
just before the crack of dawn
with both hands tied behind my back,
and a blindfold worn over my eyes.

While in the midst of...

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Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (today June 13th, 2021) single handedly

While in the midst of playing solitaire 
(with losing outcome foreordained 
after a couple moves), I became gripped 
with combinations predicated on thirteen...

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Niithaar Perumai, the Fundamental Role of Ascetics, Canto 26 of the Thirukkural, the Tamil Classical Treatise on Ethics, Translation and Commentary by T. Wignesan 


[Given the scarcity of information (mostly conflicting even then) on the...

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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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Oppressor and the oppressed.

Who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor?
Who has the right to beat a random person on the street?
Who has the right when to pronounce a person guilty or to see...

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My nascent poetic tribute to black history month

more apropos and alternately titled: 
praise to thee people 
of variegated melanin color,
whose immense understated improvements
and enhancement of webbed wide world
worth more than paltry words
of yours truly can...

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After the wife made a suggestion about what to write about...

I decided to title my piece
a concatenation of a few different notions
incorporating fictional romance
alluding to myself and spouse
in conjunction with hybridization
stemming from vague references
to tried...

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My grandparents' grandparents,
all sixteen,
digging roots through cultural meristems,
young adults,
adolescents during Time's 1880's,
post Civil War birth of Sir James Crow monoculture.

What would we name this self-hatred,
this lack of compassion and gratitude for help
for human nature's lavish...

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One generic baby boomer, (a garden variety sexagenarian)...
offers his interpretation of critical race theory

I, (an articulate, charming, domesticated, 
erudite, friendly, genteel, humorous, intelligent,
kind, learned, male, albeit modest – married) 
with freshly clipped formerly gnarly toenails
discounts...

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Her full name was Labyrinthia Pennyweight Babineaux, but her closest friends called her Libby. She was of blended French, German, and Native American heritage. Her Great Great Grandparents were said to have come from a...

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HERE. ONCE STOOD OUR HOME

I can't forget in a hurry,
Here once stood our ancestral home,
As was told my great- great- great- grand father
Who told my great-great-grand father,
Who told my great grand father and who 
In...

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Mighty Oak Tree, Its Acorns Fed Many
  (A Native American Food Source)

Hard-cast shell
flung down in Fall,
food for man and beast
nuggets of forested treasure,

Nature
sprinkles its bounty
majestic Oaks rain
fruited missiles to ground:

thy treasure feeds life itself
creatures...

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Columbus In The New World

Three ships sailed under Spanish colours
(The Santa Maria, Niña and La Pinta)
And dropped anchor off the shores of San Salvador,
For Columbus and his crew to man-the-oars
To set foot on Terra firma...

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When I was just a teenage lad, and growing up out west
I never wore a cowboy hat or fancy leather vests,
never put on cowboy boots or western shirts with snaps,
never wore tooled leather belts, much...

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Under the bridge in Del Rio are stopped, stuck, stationed
Thousands of migrant Haitians, not Ukrainians
Frankly, if they were the latter, they wouldn’t be sanctioned
Detained, abased, mistreated and deported like Haitians
Like herds of cattle to detention...

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BULLETS IN THE SOUP POT
I
BEFORE THE MIRROR
Sometimes, I sit on my sofa
Pondering on why war, poverty, hatred
and anguish has become a comforting bliss.
They say life is an unending quest; is it?
They say true love lasts...

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As a resident of Schwenksville Boro for five plus years...

Intersection upon adventitious
encounter, when first seed of genocide planted
unsuspecting subsequent rapid usurpation
quickly eradicated rightful breed
of what coalesced into thee Americas. 

I experience stir of echoes haunting
Perkiomen...

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Asian Epicurean Quest

At the heart of China Town, Kuala Lumpur (capital of Malaysia) is Petaling Street.
  
Domain of hustlers, hucksters, cheap-jacks and diblers; purveyors of street food, rude t-shirts, and rubber sandles to put...

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November second two thousand twenty two...
abuzz with Autumnal thrum

Approximately six weeks since August sum
er re: lazy dog days witnessed lolling about 
sipping cocktails, whose primary ingredient rum
pulled and sated esophageal tract nsync 
with thirstily quaffing...

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This nonestablishmentarian (Iman) kant riff!
Otherwise titled as: Thanksgiving
nothing more'n gobbledygook 
we stuff ourselves with.

Mine suburban outpost 
approximately thirty seven plus miles
southeast of where liberty bell marks
history upon cobblestone streets 
where sounds of silence 
from walking...

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