Poetry on the Euphrates

August 20, 2019 1. Gökçenur Ç.
Rüzgâr fısıldıyor: nehri anlamak için
yağmurla konuş, erik ye, taşlar edin
Bir tekneden el ele göle atlar gibi
uzun bir şiire başlıyoruz.
Yılan balıkları da biz de aşkı anlamıyoruz.

The wind whispers: to understand the river
talk with the rain, eat plums, adopt stones.
As if jumping into a lake from a boat hand in hand
we start writing a long poem.
Neither eels nor we understand the love.

風が囁く、川を理解するためには
雨と話しなさい、プラムを食べなさい、石を手に取りなさい。
手に手をとって小舟から湖に飛び込むように
僕らは長い詩を書き始める。
鰻にも僕らにも愛は理解できない。

*

2. Pelin Özer
Soluğunu tuttuğunda sonsuzluk doğar içine
Derinlerde birikmiş gökler...
Balıklarla öpüşen kuşlar...

When you hold your breath, an eternity is born in you
Skies are piled up in depths...
Birds kissing fishes...

息を止めていると、自分のなかに永遠が生まれる
空が深みのなかに積み重なる・・・
鳥が魚にくちづけする・・・

*

3. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
数えきれない多元宇宙をくぐり抜けて
光の速度で僕らは旅を続けた
今ごろ地球はもう廃墟と化しているのだろうか
百三十五冊目の日記の頁に挟まれて
君はまだ黒バラの香をかいでいるのに

Through countless layers of meta-universe
we continued our journey with the speed of light.
I wonder if the Earth has now been reduced to a ruin,
while you are trapped in the pages of your 135th diary book,
still sniffing the black roses.

Sayısız çoklu evrenden geçerek
Işık hızıyla devam ettik seyahatimize
Dünya bir harabe midir şimdi diye düşünürken ben,
Yüz otuz beşinci günlüğünün sayfalarında
Siyah güllerin kokusunu içine çekiyorsun sen

*

4. Nihat Özdal
İlk ıslak siyahın arasına dilimi koydum-
Nasıl tutacağını bilmediğin dallardan
Sarılamadan düşersin

I slipped my tongue between that first wet black-
If you don’t know how to hold a branch
you would fall before embracing it

あの最初の濡れた漆黒に僕は舌を差し入れた－
枝の掴み方を知らなければ
抱きしめる前に落っこちてしまうだろう

*

5. Yusuke Miyake
前の席のアメリカ娘よ
後ろ向きに僕の席に自分が脱いだ靴下を投げないで
それは僕の頭の上に着地した
とても美しい放物線だった
シリアに打ち込まれたミサイルみたいに

Oh! American girl, sitting on the aisle in front of me.
Don’t throw the sock you just took off backward to my seat.
It landed on my head
drawing a beautiful parabola,
just like a missile launched into Syria.

Ön koltukta oturan Amerikalı kız,
Çoraplarını çıkarıp atma arka koltuğa.
Kafamdan vurdun beni
Kusursuz bir parabol çizerek
Suriye’yi vuran füzeler gibi

*

-------------------
[The sosho's notes on sequence 1 to 5]

The first poem of Renshi (連詩) is called ‘Hosshi (発詩)’ based on the tradition that the first line of Renku (連句) is called ‘Hokku (発句), whereas the letter 発 means ‘start’. Hosshi, like Hokku, is essentially a greeting to the Renshi members, or Renshu (連衆), as well as to the place where the Renshi session is being held. That is exactly what Gokcenur is doing here: he addresses ‘the river’, ‘the rain’, ‘plums’ and ‘the lake’, which were actually all in front of us. Writing about the things in front of you is a Haiku method called Shokumoku (嘱目), which is also helpful in Renshi for writing quickly and sharing the sense of community among Renshu. The last line surprised me, though. It is unique to Gokcenur, and I don’t think a line like this would ever come out of the mouths of Japanese poets. This was the moment in this session that I felt the joy and excitement of doing Renshi outside Japan.

The first line of the 2nd poem by Pelin provides an excellent connection, or Tsuke (付け), to the preceding Hosshi by Gokcenur. Tsuke is arguably the most important element in a Renshi practice: it should not be too close (Beta-zuke) or too far apart. In this case, there is a split-second break between the first poem which is above the water and Pelin’s 2nd poem which is already in the water. This small break makes this Tsuke successful.

The 3rd poem in Renshi is supposed to be a big jump, dramatically changing the tones and topics from the first 2 poems. As a poet, I was tempted to further explore the underwater world, which was actually spread out right in front of us. But if I had done so, this Renshi would have been too fixated on this particular motif and lose the momentum to move forward. So, as sosho of this session, I followed the teaching by Makoto Ooka to always move forward and made a quantum leap up to the universe. 

4.  Nihat’s Tsuke to the preceding poem of mine is another example of an excellent connection: from the darkness of the universe and black roses (a famous Halfeti product) to the wet, warm eroticism through the channel of a human body! The ‘fall’ on the 3rd line can be read in many ways such as a black hole in the universe, a temptation of sensual desire or a breakup of a relationship, opening many possible doors to the Tsuke by the next poet.

5. Yusuke connects Nihat’s eroticism to the banal reality of international politics with a bitter sense of humor. In just 5 poems, our Renshi has already travelled from a lakeside to an American missile attack against Syria (which took place just a few weeks before this session) with diverse elements of lyricism, fantasy, fiction, eroticism and realism.


----------------------

6. Gökçenur Ç.
Yıldız kaydı sanıp dilek tutmuştun o gece balkonda
öpmeden önce beni, parmaklarını zeytin tabağına sokup
ayaklarımı ovmuştun, bilmeden yıldız nedir, ne kadar uzundur gece

You thought it was a shooting star and made a wish that night
Before kissing me on the balcony, you dipped your fingers into the olive plate
and rubbed my feet without knowing what a star was or how long the night was

その晩、君はそれが流星だと思って、願いを唱えた
バルコニーで僕にキスする前、君はオリーブのお皿に指先を浸して
僕の足を撫でていた、星が何であるかを知らず、この夜の長さを知らずに。

*

7. Nihat Özdal

Mayıs küle güvenmez
Gölgeleri kollarından uzun
Yağmuru kim getirdi
Tozlaşıyor dileğim
Adını vermek için arıya

May trusts not in ashes.
Her shadow is longer than her arms.
Who brought the rain here?
My wish pollinates
to give its name to a bee.

五月は灰を信じない
彼女の影は腕よりも長い
誰がここに雨を降らせたのか？
我が願いは花粉となって
一匹の蜜蜂にその名前を分け与える

*

8. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
ヘークショーン！
鷲鼻は吼える。クチュン、
赤ん坊の小鼻が震える。

HAPŞUUU!
Koca burun kükrüyor. hapşu,
Bebeğin minik burnu titriyor.

ATISHOOO!
A giant nose roars. Atishoo!
The baby sneezes, quivering its tiny nose.

*

9. Pelin Özer
Saçak altında göğün hasadını topluyoruz
Berekete kulak veriyoruz, bulutlara yüklenen kayaların oyuklarından
Mürekkebi dağılsa da yazdıklarımızın, ne gam
Yazılmış ve yazılacak bütün hikâyeler
Yaprakların kanadında dolanıyor dünyayı

We harvest the sky under the eaves
We listen to the fertility in the hollows of the rocks reaching for clouds
Even though the ink of our words spills, who cares?
All stories that has been and will be written
wander in the world on wings of leaves

庇の下に空を穫り入れる
雲に聳える岩の洞穴で豊饒に耳を澄ます
たとえ言葉のインクが零れたって構わない
かつて書かれこれから書かれるであろうすべての物語は
葉っぱの翼に乗ってこの世界を彷徨う

*  

10. Yusuke Miyake
僕の肩から逃げ出した狼の入墨を追いかけて行くと
血で汚されたことのない草原が現れた
だが油断するな、トルクメンの手斧が埋まっている

I chased the tattoo of a wolf who had escaped from my shoulder
and came out to the grass field which had never been tarnished by blood.
Be careful, though, a hatchet of Turkmen is buried under the ground.

Omzumdaki dövmeden kaçan kurdun izini sürerken
Daha önce hiç kanla kirlenmemiş bir çimenliğe vardım
Dikkatli olmalıyım, bir Türkmen baltası gömülü ayaklarımın altında.

*

11. Nihat Özdal
Serinleten bir yöntem var
Çelikten ayrılan
Kimse bulamaz saklayanı
Postum denizde ilerlerken
Baykuş yeniden cebimde

There is a method to cool down.
Away from the steel.
No one can find who hid it.
While my fur coat sails on the sea,
the owl is in my pocket again.

冷ますための方法がある
鋼から引き剥がすための
誰がそれを隠したのかはついに分からない
私の毛皮が海を渡ってゆくとき
梟はまた我がポケットに

*

12. Pelin Özer
Ölü diye bildiğim ne varsa canlanacak çok yakında
Fıstık ağaçlarının gövdesinden geçerek
Ateşin kollarında sallanacak

Soon everything you thought had died will revive.
They will pass through the trunks of pistachio trees
and will swing in the fire’s arms.

もうじき死んだと思っていたすべてのものが生き返るだろう
ピスタチオの木の幹を通り抜けて
炎の腕に揺られるだろう

*

13. Gökçenur Ç.
Doğan, Igor, siz de mi? siz de mi?
Hoş geldiniz, hoş geldiniz, düşlerim, eski heveslerim
Demişlerdi de inanmamıştım dağdan denize inen rüzgar
Getirebilir yitik aşkların şarkılarını, bir koku anahtarı
Açabilir belleğin yıllardır kilitli odalarını

Doğan, Igor, et tu? Et tu?
Welcome, welcome, my dreams, my old ambitions,
They told me I didn’t believe, the wind rolling down from mountain to the sea
may carry the songs of the lost loves, a key of scents
may open the locked doors of memory for years

ドーアン、イゴール、お前もか、お前もか？
よく来てくれたね、俺の夢たち、俺の古き野望たちよ
彼らは言ったっけ、俺は信じなかったが、山を転げ落ちて海へと吹く風は
失われた恋の歌を届けてくれるかもしれないと、匂いの鍵が
何年もの記憶の扉を開くかもしれないと

*

14. Yusuke Miyake
鍵穴が回るカチリという音で目がさめた
俺のでっぷりとしたお腹の中でまどろんでいる
東洋の詩の神様を誰かが盗みに来たのか？

The click of the key lock woke me up.
Has someone come to steal the god of oriental poesy,
which is dozing in my fat belly?

Anahtar deliğinde dönen çıt sesiyle açtım gözlerimi
Koca karnımın içinde uyuklayan
Doğu’nun şiir tanrısını çalmaya mı geldi yoksa biri?

*

15. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
文字に記され声に出された詩（ポエム）と違って
まだ言葉になる前の詩（ポエジー）には洋の東西も古今もない
蒙古斑からも国籍からも自由な素肌
だから誰にでもなれる
どこへでも行ける

Unlike a poem written in letters or spoken in a voice,
there is no West nor East, old nor new for poesie before it becomes words.
A naked skin free from a Mongolian spot or nationality.
That’s why it can be anybody.
That’s why it can be anywhere.

Yazılmış, söylenmiş şiirlere benzemez bu
Söze dökülmeden önce ne doğu vardır ne batı ne eski ne yeni
Moğol lekesinden de uyruktan da bağımsızdır çıplak ten
Bu nedenle herkes olabilir
Her yere gidebilir

*

16. Efe Duyan
Yeni bir ev bakıyorduk. Yenilenmenin içinde biraz da
Ölüm buluyorum bazen. Büyükada’da da olabilir demiştin
Neşeli ve unutkanım bu ara. Ekmekle sıyrılmış bir tabak önümde

We’ve been looking for a new house. Sometimes I find a piece of death
during the renewal. You said it can also be on Büyükada.
I’m joyful and absent minded recently. Before me is a plate scraped clean by a piece of bread.

僕らは新しい家を探している。改装中に小さな死が
見つかることもある。君はビュユックアダ島でもいいなって言ったね。
近頃の僕はハッピーで忘れっぽいのだ。目の前にはパンのかけらで綺麗にしたお皿。

*

17. Pelin ÖZER
Dans ederken dünyanın temeli oynuyor yerinden
Dönerek unuttukça buluyorum yönümü
Çılgınlık kardeşi yasın
Hafiflik meyvesi mutluluğun
Hadi gel o zaman birlikte kapatalım gözlerimizi

The world’s foundation moves when we dance
The more I whirl the more I forget and find my direction
Madness is the sister of grief
Lightness the fruit of joy
Com’n, let’s close our eyes together

ダンスをすると、世界の土台が揺れる
回って忘れる、回って見つける、私の行く先
狂おしさは悲しみの妹
軽さは喜びの果実
さあ、一緒に目を閉じましょう

*

18. Nihat Özdal
Suda seken yağmur tanelerinden
Daha ince olmak isterdim
Geciktim, sakındım, korktum

The rain drops bouncing on the water
I wanted to be thinner than they
I was late, I avoided, I was afraid

水面に跳ねる雨粒
僕はもっとか細くありたかった
だがもう手遅れだった、僕はやり過ごした、怖かったんだ*

*

19. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
六十歳の誕生日祝いに何が欲しい、と訊くと
スカイダイビングのレッソン、と父は答えた
若い頃はオペラ歌手を目指していたそうだ
夜更けの風呂場から掠れたテノールが響いてくる
彼は先月最後の化学療法を終えたところだ

Asked what he wished for his 60th birthday party,
my father replied: a skydiving lesson.
He dreamed to be an opera singer in his youth, they say.
Late at night I hear the rusty tenor from the bathroom.
He just finished the last round of chemotherapy last month.

Altmışıncı doğum gününde ne istediğini sordum
Skydiving dersi dedi babam
Gençken operada şarkı söylemekmiş hayali
Akşamları banyoda buğulu bir tenor sesi yankılanıyor
Geçen ay son kez girdi kemoterapiye.

*

20. Yusuke Miyake
怪我から復帰したばかりのガラタサライの長友選手の試合、昨日見たかい？
あのロングシュートは凄過ぎて、途中の１５メートルは球が完全に消えていたね。
たぶん居間のソファーでテレビを見ていた君の後ろを通過していたんだよ。

Did you see Nagatomo in the Galatasaray match yesterday? He just came back from his injury,
but his long shoot was so powerful that the ball completely disappeared for 15 meters before the goal.
It must have passed behind you as you were watching TV on the sofa in the living room.

Sakatlıktan yeni çıkmış Nagatomo’nun oynadığı Galatasaray maçını izledin mi?
Uzaktan çektiği şut muhteşemdi. Belki 15 metre gözden kayboldu top
Kanepede televizyon izlerken arkandan geçmiş olabilir senin

*

--------------------------
[The sosho's notes on sequence 16 to 20]

16. Efe joined the session on the second day and transformed my preceding line of ‘it (poesy) can be anywhere’ into a realistic sketch about a couple looking for a new house. It could be read as an opening scene of a short story. This is another new element Efe brought into this session, making the texture of this Renshi richer.

17. Here Pelin brings back the mode from Efe’s prose-like world to that of pure poetry. The two lines  “Madness is the sister of grief / Lightness the fruit of joy” seem to me a reference to the two essential elements of Renshi, which Makoto Ooka, the founder of modern Renshi, summed up as ‘Lonely Heart (孤心) and Party (うたげ) .

18. In this poem, Nihat is connecting to the two preceding poems at the same time: while he received Pelin’s ‘dance’ with his ‘raindrops’, he is also following Efe’s poem #16 by showing the older (and more disillusioned) version of the narrator.

19. I pushed the story from Efe (#16) and Nihat (#18) further along in time. Now the original narrator is 60 years old and going through a cancer treatment, as seen by the POV of his son.

20. I remember Yusuke asking me if it was OK to follow up this poem with the topic of death. I replied that cancer and death might be too close and asked for some twist if he wrote about death.  He decided not to go for dying but for recovery and introduced an image of something transcending everyday life through a metaphor of Nagatomo’s shoot.


----------------------------
21. Efe Duyan
Köşede kaybolmuştu bile
Plastik tacı daha yerden alamadan
Ürküp kaçmıştık biz de birbirimizden
İlk âşıkolduğumuzda
O zaman mı başlamıştı savaş, daha mı sonra?

She has already disappeared,
before I even picked up the plastic garland from the ground.
We, too, ran away from each other.
When we first fell in love,
had the war already started or was it later?

彼女はもう角の向こうへ消えていた、
僕がプラスチックの花飾りを地面から拾い上げる前に。
僕たちも怖気づいて、互いから逃げ去った。
僕たちが初めて恋に落ちたとき
戦争はもう始まっていたのか、その後だったのか？

*

22. Gökçenur Ç.
Zaman ikimiz için aynı hızda akmazken olabilir miyiz mutlu?
Bir taşın altında bulmuştum bu yağmuru
senin olsun, bir ada yap ondan, senin olsun.

When time is not flowing at the same speed for us, can we still be happy?
I found this rain under a stone,
take it, let it be yours, make an island out of it, let it be yours.

二人にとって時の速さが同じではなくても、僕らは幸せでいられるだろうか？
石の下にこの雨を見つけた、手にとってごらん、
君にあげるよ、この雨から島を作ってごらん、君にあげるよ

*

23. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
電波望遠鏡が受信したメッセージの翻訳ドラフトを前に
若き認知言語学者は絶句している
彼女は神を信じていないが
読み返すごとに涙が溢れてくるのを止められない
それが全くの誤訳だという可能性もないわけではないのだが

In front of the translation draft of a message received by a radio telescope,
the young cognitive linguist sits speechless.
Even though she does not believe in God,
she can’t help tears swelling as she reads it again and again.
Of course, there always is a possibility of the complete mistranslation, though.

Radyoteleskoptan gelen mesajın taslak çevirisini görünce
Genç bilişsel dilbilimcinin dili tutuldu
İnanmıyor tanrıya ancak
Engel olamıyor gözlerinden boşalan yaşlara tekrar tekrar okudukça
Çevirinin yanlış olması ihtimaline rağmen

*

24. Efe Duyan
Evden hiç uzaklaşmadım
Her gün kendi dilimi duymalıydım
Yazmak için başka dünyaları

Never went far from home
I had to hear my own language every day
In order to write other worlds

故郷を離れたことはなかった
僕には毎日自分の国の言葉を聞く必要があった
他の世界を書くために

*

25. Pelin Özer
Kalemin sesi –
Tırmanmaya başlıyor
Yavru salyangoz
Fuji’nin doruğuna
Boşluk bırakmaya

Sound of the pen tip
Littlest snail getting
Ready to climb up
To the peak of Mt. Fuji
To leave emptiness behind

ペンの音－
登り始める
カタツムリ
富士のてっぺん
空っぽ置いて

*

26. Nihat Özdal
Uçurumda dolaşan, ikimiz de çok acıktık
Bana geldiğini sanmıştım
Üvezlerin peşinde kırlangıç

Wandering around the cliff, we are both hungry
I thought it came for me
but the swallow was after for the rovan-mosquittos

断崖絶壁から飛び出したまま、ふたりは腹ペコである
僕はてっきり彼女が僕恋しさに来たと思っていたが
ツバメは実はユスリカがお目当てだったのだ

*

27. Gökçenur Ç.
Özür dilerim küçük sinek senden büyük olduğum için.
Salkım söğütler, kelebekler, terk edilmiş bir köyde anıran eşekler,
özür dilerim, ağır ruhumla bozdum dengenizi.
Olabilmek isterdim ağzına kadar dolu süt kâsesini
taşırmayan beyaz krizantem yaprağı.

Forgive me little fly, for being bigger than you.
Weeping willows, butterflies, in a deserted village braying donkeys,
forgive me, I unbalanced you with my heavy soul
I’d like to be a white chrysanthemum petal that would not cause
an overflow from a brimful milk bowl.

蚊よ、君よりも大きくてすまない
しだれヤナギよ、蝶々よ、寂れた村で啼いているロバよ
すまない、僕の重い魂で君たちのバランスを崩した
僕は白菊の花びらのようでありたい、なみなみと満たされた
ミルクの皿を溢れさせることのないように

*

28. Yusuke Miyake
夏出水
犬の死骸の
流れけり

A flood in summer
A dog’s corpse
floating by

Yaz taşkınları
Bir köpeğin cesedi
Geçip gidiyor

*

29. Nihat Özdal

Artık Mira yok
Sayıklamasın diye yavrular
Uykuma koydu memelerini
Beneklerini seçmeliydim sırtında
Bulutları dağıtmak için kırdım sütleğeni

Mira is not here anymore.
Hoping the puppies won’t be delirious,
she placed her tits inside my sleep
I had to find the flecks on her back
I broke up a spurge into half to disperse the clouds.

ミラはもう居ない。
子犬たちがうなされないように、
彼女が乳房を僕の夢に差し出す。
彼女の背中の黒子を見つけるために
僕は灯台草の茎を折った、雲を晴らすのだ。

（訳注：トルコでは、トウダイグサの汁を水に垂らすと、水が透明になるといわれている）

*

30. Pelin Özer
Zahter sarhoşu, dolaşıyorum patikada
Kutsal çalının dikeni parmağımı kanattığında
Gecenin sessizliğini duyar gibi oldum

I am wandering on a path, stoned with wild thyme.
When the needle of the holy bush stung my finger to bleed,
I thought I heard the silence of the night

野草の匂いに酔いしれて、山道を歩いている
聖なる茨の針が私の指から血を滴らせたとき、
夜の静けさを聴いた気がした

*

31.Yusuke Miyake

真夜中のホテルの風呂場で俺はすっ転んだ
したたかに肘を打ったためにしばらくは声も出せなかった
このまま死んでしまうのだろうかという恐怖
俺はSOSの念力を送った
すなわち俺が最も虐げて来た人々に

I slipped in the bathroom of the hotel in the middle of the night.
Hitting my elbow so hard, I couldn’t utter a word
the terror of dying here alone helplessly...
I send out an SOS by telepathy,
namely to the people whom I had abused the most.

Gece yarısı, otelin banyosunda düştüm
Öyle sert çarptım ki dirseğimi acıdan bir süre sesimi çıkaramadım.
Böyle mi öleceğim diye korku içindeyken
Telepatiyle yardım çağrısında bulundum
Sık sık aşağıladığım insanlardan.

*

32. Efe Duyan

Her şey geldi başıma ama hiçbir yerim kırılmadı
bedenim her gün öldüğünü saklıyor benden
Ayşegül de öyle, ruhum duymadan halloluyor evde sıkıntılar

I got all kinds of trouble but never had a broken bone
my body hides from me that it slowly dies every day
So does Ayşegül, problems at home are solved without me even noticing

いろんなことが起こったが、骨を折ったことはついぞなかった。
僕のからだはそれが日一日と死につつあることを僕に隠している。
妻のアイシェギュルも同じだ、我が家の諸問題は知らぬ間に解決されてゆく。*

*

33. Yasunori Yotsumoto
「善人なおもて往生するまして悪人をや」
和尚の講話が終わった途端
夫のラインに女から誘いが入った
私はその全てを見下ろしている
彼岸に聳えるパゴダの上に浮かんで

“İyiler de cennete gider kötülerden bahsetmeye gerek bile yok”
Budist rahibin vaazı biter bitmez
yeni sevgilisinden bir Whatsapp mesajı geldi kocama
Bütün olanları görüyordum ben
Öbür dünyadaki büyük Pagoda’nın üstünde süzülürken.

“Even the virtuous believes can be saved, not to mention the vicious pagans”
As soon as the monk finished his preaching,
a message came in to my husband’s Whatsapp from his new lover.
I’m looking down at all of these,
floating above a pagoda soaring in the beyond-world.

*

34. Gökçenur Ç.
Buradayım ama burayı özlüyorum hâlâ
cennet ve cehennem iki ayrı yer değil
birbirinin geçmişi ve geleceği

I am here but am already missing here
The hell and paradise are not two different places
They are each other’s future and past

私はここにいる、だが既にここを懐かしがっている
天国と地獄は別々の場所ではない
そのふたつは互いの過去と未来なのだ

*

35. Pelin Özer
Saflığın doğduğu dağı arıyorum
Biliyorum kimse veremez koordinatlarını
Serin esen yele dayadım sırtımı
Güneşin sırrını okuyorum bulutların ifadesinden
Nehir suyu kadar tatlı bir havadayım simdi.

I am looking for that mountain where the purity was born,
even though I know that no one can be given its exact coordinates.
Turning my back to the blowing wind,
I read the secret of the sun in the expression of the clouds.
I am in such a cheerful mood like river water.

純粋さの生まれたあの山を探している、
誰にもその正確な位置を得られないことは知っているけれど。
吹きつける風に背中を向けて、
私は雲の表情に太陽の秘密を読み取る。
まるで川の水のように愉しい気持ちだ。

*

36. Nihat Özdal
N 37°13’14.9052”  E 37°53’5.5608”
Burada her şeyden saklanabilirsin
Ham incirden başlayan yaranı öptüm

N 37°13’14.9052”  E 37°53’5.5608”
Here, you can hide yourself from anything
I kissed your wound which is started by a prematured fig.

N 37°13’14.9052”  E 37°53’5.5608”
ここでは全てから身を隠すことができる
熟しきってないイチジクから始まる君の傷口に口づけした

*

37. Efe Duyan
Yeni aldığımız sardunyalar delirmiş resmen
sırlar hep yordu beni
oysa doğa kendini saklamıyor
kesme sarı taş duvarda solmuş bir gelincik koparıp
arasına koydum yeni kitabımın, Das Kapital’in mangası

The geranium we just got went absolutely mad
mysteries have always bothered me
see, nature doesn't hide itself
I pluck a withered poppy from yellow ashlar wall
and put it inside my book, the Manga of Das Kapital

最近買ったゼラニウムが咲き狂っている
秘密はいつも僕を疲れさせる
自然は自分を隠さない
黄色い切石の壁から生えている鄙びたヒナゲシの花を摘んで
今読んでいる漫画版『資本論』の頁に挟んだ

*

38. Yusuke Miyake
分厚い本の中にぴったりと挟み込まれている紙魚は一体何食べてるんだろうね？
知らないのかい？勿論けしからんイデオロギーを喰って太っていやがるのさ。
気付かなかったかい？最近、奴らの目がやけに反抗的なのを。

I wonder what the bookworms are eating, pressed tightly within thick books?
Don’t you know? Of course, they are getting fat eating shameful ideologies.
Haven’t you notice it? Recently, they are looking at us with very rebellious eyes.

Kalın kitabın içinde iyice sıkışmış kâğıt kurdu neyi yiyor acaba?
Bilmiyor musun? Elbette kepaze bir ideolojiyi yiyip şişmanlıyor.
Fark etmedin mi? Son zamanlarda nasıl da isyankâr gözlerle bakıyor.

*

39. Gökçenur Ç.
Yüzlerce şiir yazdık, binlerce roman okuduk
Yazdık gecede, güneş tepedeyken, yazdık bir dağın doruğunda,
bir ada akşamında, yazdık yanan bir ormandan fırlayan geyikler,
paslı kamyonet iskeletlerine uluyan kurtlar gibi, belki hepsi
bu mayıs günü iç çamaşırlarımızla nehirde yüzmek içindi.

We wrote hundreds of poems, read thousands of novels
we wrote in the dark, when the sun shines in the sky, we wrote
at the mountain peaks, in the island evenings, we wrote like deers running away
from a forest fire, like wolves howling at the rusty pick-up skeletons, maybe all
was only for this May day, swimming with our underwear in the lake

百の詩を書いた、千の小説を読んだ
暗がりで書いた、太陽が空に輝いているときも、山の頂で
書いた、島の夕暮れで、山火事から走り去る鹿のように
書いた、錆びついたトラックの骨格のなかで吠える狼のように書いた、それも
これもこの五月の一日、下着姿で湖で泳ぐためではなかったろうか

*

40. Yasuhiro Yotsumoto
水底に開かれた窓から
三日月が見えた　深く　もっと深く
僕らは浮かび上がってゆく

In an open window at the bottom of water,
a crescent moon was seen. Deeper, much deeper down,
we are raising ourselves up.

Suyun dibindeki açık bir pencereden
hilal göründü. Derine, daha derine daldıkça
yukarı çıkıyoruz.

-------------------------------
[The sosho's notes on sequence 35 to 40]

35. This poem of Pelin follows an image of the after-life from the preceding Gokcenur’s poem and  from the 33rd poem of mine, but in a happy and positive atmosphere, which is very timely as the session is getting close to its end. In the last round of the Renshi, each poet should add a final leap generating not only forward but also upward motion toward and beyond the closing poem (Ageshi 揚詩).

36. Nihat takes Pelin’s line of ‘no one can be given its position’ and connects it to the geographic coordinate system, which points to the exact location of Halfeti. Later, I learned the geographic coordination was something Nihat had been writing about in his own poems. Sometimes this happens in a Renshi session: it provides you a perfect opportunity to write about your favorite subject as if for a reward for being ‘self-less’.

37. Efe responds here to Nihat’s ‘hiding’ by ‘secret’ but in an opposite direction, which is called Muko-zuke (向う付け). All the secrets Nihat buried in the position seem to be revealed in the ordinary life through a geranium flower. He then hides his own flower, a withered poppy, within the pages of Das Kapital. Throughout this session, we see that the narrative moves between the physical and metaphysical as it moves forward.

38.  Yusuke once again brings an element of political reality following Efe's reference to capitalism. The result is a superb poem with an ominous undertone wrapped in dry humor, a typical Yusuke style. But can we close this session in a happy and open end with only two poems left? I just crossed my fingers for Gokcenur’s next poem to make a dynamic shift into the landing gear.

39. That is exactly what Gokcenur does in this poem by turning the ‘thick books’ of Yusuke’s poem into a reference of our own writings as poets. In a sense, this poem already serves as the closing poem (Ageshi 揚詩), completing a full circle to the starting poem (Hosshi, 発詩) of his own. After going through 38 micro-cosmos of each poem, we are now back to the lake spreading in front of us.

40. Thanks to Gokcenur,  my closing poem comes easily. All I have to do is to ensure the upward motion in an open ending, for which I use the image of a window under the water. I also pay my last tribute to this place, Turkey, with the image of a crescent moon.
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