Sea Turkey 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...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that...

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Yahya Kemal Beyatli translations

Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1884-1958) was a Turkish poet, editor, columnist and historian, as well as a politician and diplomat. Born born Ahmet...

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THIS DREAM AWAKENS

Marmara teasing, 'do you see me?' 
the black sea among
tables more empty than tombs
to yet born emperors as black tie
waiters serve solitude in...

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Gobble gobble here comes trouble
Every year this time comes a struggle
Will I be the one for the pot this time?
Is the major worry on my...

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Turkey
    Let's See

        Gobble
           ...

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Brown turkey fig bush
Large leaves turkey foot shape....
Yield hornets and wasp...

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The sun sets over Istanbul
The days are so warm 
The nights quite cool
We walk along the bospheros
Hand in hand
Oh what a mystical magical land
The sun...

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Like a gizzard on a lizard,
Like a bill on a $1 duck buck,
Like a wallet whose use is forgotten,
Like the window with no glass
Some stuff...

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