HAZi RAN

Bugun Pazar

Bugun pazar.
Bugun beni ilk defa gunese cikardilar.
Ve ben omrumde ilk defa gokyuzunun
bu kadar benden uzak
bu kadar mavi
bu kadar genis olduguna sasarak
kimildamadan durdum.
Sonra saygiyla topraga oturdum,
dayadim sirtimi duvara.
Bu anda ne dusmek dalgalara,
bu anda ne kavga, ne hurriyet, ne karim.
Toprak, gunes ve ben...
Bahtiyarim...

NAZIM HIKMET

TODAY IS SUNDAY
Today is Sunday.
For the first time they took me out into the sun today.
And for the first time in my life I was aghast
that the sky is so far away
and so blue
and so vast
I stood there without a motion.
Then I sat on the ground with respectful devotion
leaning against the white wall.
Who cares about the waves with which I yearn to roll
Or about strife or freedom or my wife right now.
The soil, the sun and me...
I feel joyful and how.


NAZIM HIKMET

Translated by Talat Sait Halman.
(Literature East & West, March 1973)

Nazım Hikmet Ran (November 20, 1901 – June 3, 1963), commonly known as Nazım Hikmet (pronounced [nɑːˌzɯm hikˈmɛt]), was a Turkish poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist who is acclaimed in Turkey
as the first and foremost modern Turkish poet, is known around the
world as one of the greatest international poets of the twentieth
century.^[1] He earned international fame with his lyric power, through the "lyrical flow of his statements".^[2] He has been referred to as a "romantic communist"^[3] or a "romantic revolutionary".^[2]
He was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of
his adult life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated
into more than fifty languages.