Long Torsos 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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Stood I there, that last day,
On an iron bridge...
An aqueduct by design,
Where, looking dreamily out over
The Ernes Lower Lough,
My compressed shadow 
Momentarily paused -
To contently recline:
Amidst coy Junes radiant beams 
of sweet benign!
All was stilled,...

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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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This is my translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's second elegy from his Duino Elegies, which he began composing at Duino Castle in 1912. 

Second Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Every angel...

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Rampant and endemic police brutality... 
flourishes against United States citizens of color 
going on three years 
post George Floyd 
short lived heightened awareness
when #blacklivesmatter 
in conjunction with 1619 project
wrought upwelling of progressive surge
hinting at positive...

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The date
July Twenty Eight
The year, 1914
The War which we feared 
It began, something we could not foresee
This date, still haunters me
To this very day
Those bewailing screams
And those traumatic scenes
Words to do not to justify 
The...

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The crying grass 
(for the late Victor Jara,* Pablo Neruda 
and Salvador Allende)
by ‘bro. zayid’

In this stadium
of footlaunched spotted balls
of what should be promising soccer stars…
In this stadium
reeking with the stench of terror
and the numbing...

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A damp, dank odour pervades the saturated forest; pungent. acrid;
The stench an assault on the human senses:
Working subtly, slowly permeating every pore until it compromises the very heart of the forest.

Seeping easily between the debris;...

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Why We Will Never Say Hello or Good-bye
By Ingrid Showalter Swift 
Rake your fine fingers across my tender lips...
waiting with the hunger that years have made.
...Do you still hear me? 
I am off in a...

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Scarcely the Dropper-- a roach antennae Felt,

Some Maudling exterminator of nakedly inhuman hands.

Boiled renunciation falling sick With life itself,

For Libido has and Always Will Be…. the most Impersonal of instrument.

Stepping out and through a purple...

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In the season of the ballot
He came on his knees
Like a servant and saint
He sought to be crowned leader
He reminded us of his humble breeding
In the creeks of our land
He was our very own
And so,...

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Navigating the immense void of night
The right ascension to a winter’s sky;
Coincides with the height from which I stood 
Stars, interlinking crescendo’s so freely,
Imitate the centuries, as I presumed as much.

At least with one tuned...

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the face on show reveals an issue
I see you looking I see I pissed you
pick your choosing which insult to use
insight you're amusing I see through you
think you've found my insecurity
stand assuredly sure of me
but...

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As the darkness reaching out for the darkness, 
her black scalpel eyes met mine across 
the crushing divide of a revelling throng. 
The amateur axe band strangled a bargain basement 
hard rock song, born of...

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The road to my backyard is long and straight
Evergreen trees abound and provide welcome shade
Home to myriad birds, butterflies and the bees
Last summer their branches were sawn off, without notice
The orgy with power-saws lasted barely...

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FARMER’S SON

There’s the sky, look at it
Giggling with the high-mast light
Twinkling not with the stars, but with rays of illumination
Coming from the back windows of a thirty storey mansion, 
There stands in the balcony, like...

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Part 1

Once upon a drunk bachelors night,
This guy decided to go down to his local drinking site,
Sitting in a sparsely filled dive of a pub,
Couples slurring, singles fingering at crap grub,
The smell of cheap beer...

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Time disorder is common in a concert meant for those who rush
one organized by adrenaline and moderated by passion
a boomerang transaction, where the receiver and giver are the same
in a speedy interplay, faster than lightening...

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A back flipping coconut is very very amusing at a ball but ball pits are moving around so one must surely wear wellingtons or a pair of anglers' waders when jumping across such multicoloured curves....

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No one asked her to dance at their Prom that night
It beggars belief in me, what's wrong with these guys
Her beauty is all I see, personified within my sight
To not even to approach, I'm in...

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Set the scene
strike the slate
a plague befalls Rome this day
like the Gods bless the clouds to spew rain from its jaws
A hurricane of envy washes the city streets
already filthy with the foul stench of death...

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Agony, grief and particularly anger
roil these lovely bones
life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness
exempts those graced with darker skin tones.

Rather than raucously riot,
I craft emotions courtesy poetry
mine feeble attempt to agitate and protest
sublimated thru scathing poetic...

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As my dancing feet hit the floor, my eyes were trapped...fixed on the god of a 
male,who shines a sure smile at me. Appealing to my eyes from the vibes he 
radiates, sending visual cues...

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Once manifested on the 
heel of Adagio in G major,
balancés and assemblés from 
the back hand. Baryshnikov told
me to flatten my stomach, so I 
repressed the urge to
breathe; suffocation is
incandescence by the barre.

Then I looked...

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Our naughty crafts in sex workshop
are all placed under a constant rewind.
Your accurate curves and warm planes
covered in moisture like a soul’s Vaseline
is an awesome park for the leisure of my lust.
Hormones from both ends,
acting...

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