Long Fortresses 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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“Are there many Fairy Folk other than the elves?”  Joulupukki queried.
     “Not so many as before the humans took control of the world.  The ones left behind in Erin...

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Not a day goes by I don't think of you
you have permeated my fortress and walk freely in all its rooms
(examining it's furnishings)
how did I allow you entry without the
usual search scan and seizure ?
I'ts...

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Unquotable quotes : EVIL PEOPLE – VIIIL (42)

Animals (amphibians, reptiles),  birds, insects, dinosaurs and even imaginary beasts kill to eat. Humans for pleasure, pain and profit.

Evil people never think of Evil lest they feel...

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"The Deconstructed Lilith"




Decomposing from a past
left forgotten and buried 
under the weakness of the first man banished

from 
Her Forest,

She rests, bound in the arms of angst 
eternally suspended, 
invisible and unheard

gagged, Her spirit waits 
and...

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Talismanic mystical duties of an aardvark is best performed upon a desert landscape or in a dense jungle for it is merely in these two places that wild fauna can be located and ancient brands...

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The drunk gods of vengeance mischievously donate their magic
filthy rags of wickedness, dropping down to curse humanity
darkness rules, day is banned for light to stay poisoned.
The ground peels from the earth to dissipate into the...

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My OldSchool patriarchal Pentateuch
precedes our polycultural HolyNew Paraclete.

This Pentateuch
begins with the beginning
of theo-TribalEgo cultural correlations;
Genesis begets Exodus,
the ChosenTribe's emigration
into sacred Promised Land

Of special transparency
and divine vulnerability
for a religious Priesthood
found in Leviticus.

Levite Priests
Jesus recognized
and dismembered as...

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no skating on pond adventurous lads along the run                          ...

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Mountains mourn a mildew. Such a deity of prowess. What a cumbersome lot those pickles. And oh look there, a pretty formation of moths in a tree. Thunderbeds are ghosts. And who would count the...

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Hours contemplated, yet words just cease to come,
Until I open my eyes and gaze at dawn’s sun
I remember words spoken in a haze of a dream,
Resting on the thoughtful tongue passed from you to me
Ignorance...

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You are the person of virtuous devotion 
The world has beaten you down and taken what you love
Yet you never slayed by your emotion
You took pity on those like you and with your wings showed...

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My Eyes Opened
 The Sky Unfolded
 See the Physical Hell Hovering
 In the Spiritual War of Horus
 Im in the Body of Morpheus
 I see Spiritual Bodies of Corpses 
Burning in Torments
 I got a...

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In the night the wolves howl in the distance,
As the spring lambs bay, with the first stirrings of life,
Close lies the pack of humanity, those for whom hunger for the
Fresh taste of the blooding’s first...

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Eons ago, near two flowing rivers in old China 
Lived an old, white clothed man ninety-nine years of age 

Who glared at two mountains he knew from his long-dead childhood 
Who glared at the giants...

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folks, there is a brand spanking new
kind of idiot
that walks amongst us &
no,
s/he is not a ****ing zombie---
some film mustered creature who
erupts from the dead like some
fictional biblical bullshit
to wreak havoc on the rest of...

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* This is a CCM (Christian) song that I wrote for Lifeblood Ministries about 20 years ago, and it WILL be on my upcoming album under my music moniker "Bahku". Please visit my web site...

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Surly you have put   
                your word to pen
the winds have carried them
have dispersed them   ...

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Oh Lord please tell me what Isaiah meant 

That “the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus?” 

I look out at the full moon in the...

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In the odyssey of my soul, I have sailed seas of uncharted destiny,
Embarked on the ship of time, under the flag of a stormy youth.
Six years under the starry sky, I forged myself among the...

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Deep within impermanence and continuity of change

Seeds lie shielded waiting and protected for the moment

They trust that the cupid cupule holds the bow and arrows

Firmly based in the grasp of nature and uncharted destiny


Sheltered for...

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Tiny misshapen meringues, puffs of cloud, float 
Like lacework across the green and brown land 
Far beneath. In the distance, they are a little
Bigger, yet still not the towering fortresses of home;
And the snaking roads,...

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I have found something
Greater, stronger than democracy
Making every person
An equal player in the game of life
I have found that, that
Wields control where incursion has never made
Beaming white light in the region of blackest darkness
Widening the...

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Circular motions of mice dressed in vividly printed mushroom skirts. Could be acronyms for stars. Could bring the brooms to the brooks. Many a flea could clean a flowered stalk. While the emblem of an...

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