Long Heaves 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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 TUAN TATA : Song of Uda - I
by T. Wignesan

(Patrick Noone, a British anthropologist, discovered the Ple-Temiar tribe living isolated in the jungle highlands in the State of Perak on the west coast of...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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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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I can't make you understand how I feel,
And I've spent a lifetime trying to explain it.
Chances are YOU'LL never experience it,
As you are in the latest years of your life ...
There's no way to induce...

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WOMB OF ALL BEGINNINGS


In the delicious womb of all beginnings 
we learnt to giggle electrons
to bear all things 
without nusturtiums, pink lilies or doughnuts 
warm gurglings of God’s dream for us

Morning glories were waiting 
deep...

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Unquotable quotes – Lawyers:  XX

(No aspersions are willfully or otherwise cast on the honorable profession of the Law. Though I’m not a Barrister, I passed – through self-study – all the subjects at the...

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Behind the theatre's foyer,                               ...

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I know you’re happy,

Guess I’m stuck bein’ me,

Guess I stay missin’ out on chances that I couldn’t see.

But in the meantime,

Keep your head,

And know I’m doin’ just fine.

You know, maybe I’ll get lucky and catch...

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The Quality of Mercy.
A mouse doesn't ask for mercy from a cat. It can't meow the syllables.
Though its stomach is full, the cat,being unacqainted with mercy, 
will toy with a mouse. 
Does the tiny heart...

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Part I:  My mother’s Voice. 
  
“There’s something not quite right.” 
My mother’s doctor said.
The murmur in your heart.
I think we’ll  make a start, 
to take a look, and book a bed...

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there are mornings that I wake
          within the confines of my bed
              ...

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3:01

Its midnight,
And it’s settling in.
I’ve been home
Just a few hours.
Comfortable in my home,
At ease with my hobbies.
But then I feel it.
It starts with a tingling,
All over; inescapable.
But then its gone.
Like it was never even there.
And...

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The feeling of comfort

Is one of the most incredible and humbling

Emotions that has ever flooded through my veins

And caressed every nerve in my body.



Having all of your troubles be lessened

And the ache of your troubled...

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Tonight the act of naming fell through the floor.
We speak permeable solids inflect’d by light.
Things move indistinctly: a pine palette floats
momentarily from semi truck’s bed, crosses
its body with windshield; ovidian shift from a
Forest to an...

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Thunder 

From hills in the distance
Comes the roll of thunder
Soon raindrops are spotting
His mind turns to wonder
The sky flashes brightly
In vivid white and blue
He knows in a short time
This storm will break through

Above clouds are...

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The wails that disturb very few in their bed
Reach only the ears of the psychic… or dead

                  ...

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somber thoughts in disarray
broken moments of a jaded day
under siege of firing brigades
the bed you lay in is the bed you made

tattered talons from battles fought
a mind full of colorful forgetmenots 
fragmented pieces of what...

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"Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks" _ Greek philosopher, Plutarch

O hearts  that breathe with nature breath! 
O eyes that dipped in heaven's wine! 
O souls in world of pain who...

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Placed Second in: 
This or That, Vol. 23 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh


                      ...

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Ah Consuela! Invoking vast vistas for visions of green Spanish eyes,
I discern them again where she left me back then,
                 as we kissed when she parted, my friend.
Through those ruins I tread towards the footlights,...

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Health of a nation
See the old and young station
Your indication

Breeze moves the tree leaves
But turned to gusts the tree heaves
The wise man perceives

Things are a blessing
Until fury oppressing
Stops your regressing

Pebble, rock, boulder
The size chip on...

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I don't like to say goodbye,

And I don't mind an honest white lie.

If you could hold me,

If you could love me,

If you could lie to me,

And tell me one last promise we both know you...

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A Prophecy From Beyond

This night I strayed into a dream
It was unlike any other I’ve known
Nothing is an ever what it seem
To place a truth to believe what was shown

{There was blood dripping from the...

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I experience inappetence...

(similar physiological phenomena
affected yours truly
exactly one year ago),
yet nevertheless hunger,
not only for victuals
but peace on Earth
and goodwill to all men,
women, children, animals,
plants, et cetera

Mine corporeal complex edifice
unleashes convulsions of anxiety
less so regarding mine...

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