Long Severs 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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When Cupid fired an arrow in the air,
Where it might land?  He did not care!
His only intent?  To lighten his quiver,
When he shot his barbed Love dart thither!
So came the time, or so...

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In some integral green ways,
and blues truths,
and red-hot fear-filled/angry rightwing lives,

We all began as the ecofeminist 
EarthMother-wombed and -birthed
children

And, thereby,
co-attached with her EarthMother's health-egged 
mind/body habitat-nurturing womb

Ecosystemic
regenerative,
win/win committed
embedded
indigenous

Win/Win ReGenerative Living
Loving Nature EcoSystemic
environment
Holy EnSpirited back
back
back
to when...

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before the intentions of man reaped, 
the iniquitous momentum of apparitions harvested 
habitual moons for security-
no rest for redemption when seeking resolution. 

derived from favoritism and mentalism, 
there's the breaking down of monuments 
to sate...

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("Bye Bye Safe Journey", 2014, original pen and ink and oil)

The Great Reset

As the modern world hurls towards tomorrow
more and more of us are swept up,
languages, dress, myths and beliefs,
consumed in the cause of hope...

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The sound of the word
                Frightens me
The thought of it
          Drains...

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WINTER FAIRES AND RETURN TO THE FOREST
This is one poem in the collection. They are a series of poems that tell a story. The story is about a war. A battle between wills and power...

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Here I stand
sweat dripping off my nose
as I bounce my axe 
   in my left hand,
blood slides off the blade.

They tell me
   my eye turn crimson
when I’m like this,
  ...

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There is nothing left to say
Once the wind has blown away
All the leaves from their high nest
To its cradle in the west, 
Where the hills and meadows were
Filled with plaintive dulcimer
Notes descending from the cot
Of...

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Sam Antix, Shuffling, Stands
Battered, Bloody, Body
Turns, Towards, Taking
Course, Cold, Cavern, Cave
Vocal, Voice, Vibrating
Frequency, 538, Forward
Face, Fierce, Foe
Only, Option, Open
Defy, Defend, Defeat
Star, Same, Seek
Princess, Prisoner, Pointed, Peak

Thirty feet within the darkness band
There appears movement upon distant...

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It crept upon me,
From the age of eight,
Who knew the depths of hell,
That that first taste would lead?
The singing and jokes,
The dancing and shouts,
It all seemed grand to me.

It ate deep inside,
My nervous system,
Trapped by...

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Feasting and exchanging gifts in full swing
On the New Year day in King Arthur’s court
A green knight armed with an axe enters
And challenges anyone present in the court
To strike him once with his axe on...

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It is seen, but unpredictable -> Like lightening, it can never be touched until it has
stricken, when the mind settles its anticipation, but the heart is burned to the core. 

It severs, it wounds, it...

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A Spirit Leaves the Body Seeking Eternity

A Spirit leaves the body while crying aloud as
Cursing blind hate enters without conscience 
A Hell for the wicked casting names as called
Tears of love weeping in sorrow and...

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A Spirit leaves the body while crying aloud as
Cursing blind hate enters without conscience 
A Hell for the wicked casting names as called
Tears of love weeping in sorrow and anguish 
Dripping red from the heart...

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always ...
       "always", you confessed me ...
              "until the stars themselves grow cold ... "
 ...

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silent invisible needles and threads keep sowing and reaping my soul into death
i open my my eyes and i can't catch my breath...
suffocated and strangled...hellbound and hexed
seductions construction still building those lies...
hypnotized and held by...

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The Spiral

Once the circuit is closed it is a never-ending story one of
hate and violence an eye for an eye and more darkened vision

Who cast the first stone threw the first bomb wielded the sword
where...

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Does not the pen yield its ink unto the bare page,
For expressionism to spill forward expelling inspirations
Liberal curve, it’s the power of freedom of speech is
It not.
How many have died for what they believe in,
What...

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In the night of others he sits and gets a drink
To lit a cigarette he always smiles
For with the smoke he does gets think
By the cliff he watches and drown in tears

With so many memories...

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I cry unto you, and still my tears go unnoticed, why do you crave my attention to spurn
me when I step forward?

My hands dig into the soil, earth crumbles through my fingers, the stains of...

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"Come," whispers a friend, with a grin sly and svelte,
"To the realm where the grandest of marbles do melt.
Take this ticket, no charge, it's a magical key,
To the dance of the cosmos, just you wait...

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war is about as far from love as you could get
selling flesh for oil... who's price is certain death
who'll kiss the faceless orphan void of hope and limb
war, the eyeless ogre, blind to the fires...

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This is a journey into you, into me, into you…
Our truth, our soul individualized drops of one ocean…
My hearts courage severs the attachment cord of my identity…
For what is my identity...?
Is it that which others...

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