Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Translated By Aysel K. Basci

Fresh As a Rose

Its every moment fresh as a rose

Made of glimmer and ivory foams,

Sleepy, wuthering summer morns,

Southern winds, and back-to-back dreams.

Dissolving, as if tulle,

On the shoulders of timid waves,

Its secret hidden in the air,

This blast, this spring… Mad kisses

And smiles hiding coral glasses…

How many sunsets did I watch on this shore?

Within the faint-violet clouds

How many bloody suns agonized

With the anxiety of distant mossy gardens;

Voices, like unreachable horizons,

A boat, burning in treacherous tides,

Pigeons, flying from our palms,

Fate that never leaves our sides.

Bir Gül Tazeliği

Bir gül tazeliği içinde her an

Fildişi köpükten ve parıltıdan

Mahmur, uğultulu yaz sabahları,

O üst üste rüya, cenup rüzgârı.

Ürkek dalgaların omuzlarında

Tül tül dağılanlar, sırrı havada

Bu cümbüş, bu bahar... Çılgın öpüşler

Mercan kadehleri gizli gülüşler...

Kaç akşam seyrettim bu sahilde ben

Bulutların solgun menekşesinden

Kaç güneş çırpındı kanlar içinde,

Yosun bahçelerin uzak vehminde;

Sesler erişilmez ufuklar gibi

İmkânsız sularda tutuşan gemi,

Uçan güvercinler avucumuzdan

Ayrılmayan kader baş ucumuzdan.

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-1962) was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, literary scholar and essayist, widely regarded as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Turkish literature.

Aysel K. Basci’s translations appeared in The Common, Washington Square Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, Columbia Journal, Adroit Journal, and elsewhere.