Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Selahattin Yolgiden

Athens

I see myself dying
wherever
I turn my eyes

this is the time
the evening cries on its mother's lap
tell him everything;

songs are the daughters
of the long past,
instruments are combs among those long hairs.

what if you remember your grandma
as you wash your face with the whitest houses
by a blue sea, who says

“don’t die before you see the sea
in which your grandpa had washed himself”

remnants of my life
continually  remembered

where should I bury myself?

Atina

Atina

nereye baksam
öldüğünü görüyorum
kendimin.

akşamın ağladığı saattir
annesinin kucağında
anlat ona;

şarkılar uzak zamanların
kızlarıdır,
çalgılar uzun saçlarında tarak.

bembeyaz evlerle yıkarken yüzünü
mavi bir denizin kıyısında
babaannen gelse aklına;

“ölme görmeden, dedenin
yıkandığı denizi.”

yıkıntıları ömrümün
durmadan hatırlanan

nereye gömsem kendimi?
Close

Athens

I see myself dying
wherever
I turn my eyes

this is the time
the evening cries on its mother's lap
tell him everything;

songs are the daughters
of the long past,
instruments are combs among those long hairs.

what if you remember your grandma
as you wash your face with the whitest houses
by a blue sea, who says

“don’t die before you see the sea
in which your grandpa had washed himself”

remnants of my life
continually  remembered

where should I bury myself?

Athens

I see myself dying
wherever
I turn my eyes

this is the time
the evening cries on its mother's lap
tell him everything;

songs are the daughters
of the long past,
instruments are combs among those long hairs.

what if you remember your grandma
as you wash your face with the whitest houses
by a blue sea, who says

“don’t die before you see the sea
in which your grandpa had washed himself”

remnants of my life
continually  remembered

where should I bury myself?
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