Tarih-Coğrafya History-Geography

Tarih-Coğrafya

Kimse ilk basmaz bir toprağa

Sırtlanırsın geçmiş ruhları
Tanrılar Tanrıçalar da bir
zaman sen gibi canlardı
İçinden geçer hepsinin gücü, zaafı
Aşağıda toprağın üzerinde
kafilelerce çoğaldı
ölü ölümlüler
Gıkları çıkmadı
Allah’ın unuttuğunu kimse anımsamadı
 
Tarihimsin bir miktar kabul
ama coğrafyam değil
Yer kaplayanların adıdır coğrafya
ve kalmak yürek ister
 
Ölülerimle kaldım coğrafyamda
Sen kendini inkâr ettin
resmî oldun, hakikatinden boşaldıkça
 
Hayatımla kaldım coğrafyamda
kendi tarihimi yazmaya
 

History-Geography

No one is the first to set foot on any soil
You're always borne by souls who passed before
Time was, gods and goddesses
were alive just like you
Their strengths and weaknesses flow through you
into the earth
trodden underfoot by the procession
of the mortal dead
 
Granted some of you are my history
yet not my geography
Geography is the name of those who occupy the land
and it takes heart to stay
 
I stayed in my geography with my dead
Yet you denied your very self
Turned official, emptied of truth
 
I stayed in my geography with my life
to write my own history
 

History - Geography

No one is the first to step on to a land

All is burdened by past souls
Time was Gods and Goddesses
were alive just like you
Their strengths and weaknesses flowing through you
Down below the earth
Piled on by the travelers
dead mortals
did not made a sound
None remembered the ones forsaken by God
 
Granted some of you are my history
yet not my geography
Geography is a name for those who occupy its space
and it takes heart to remain
 

I remained in my geography through my deaths

Yet you denied yourself
Became official, drained of your truth
 
I remained in my geography through my life
to write my own history
 

This was the first of three poems by Karin Karakaşlı that we translated in our workshop and we were all immediately enthralled by the swift, clean energy of her style, her directness and her ability to speak powerful truths using very pared down vocabulary.

Karin is Armenian and, as a result, a great deal of her work, especially her poetry, is preoccupied with the status of Armenians within Turkey and the persistent denial of the 1915 genocide that poisons her country. This poem very directly addresses those issues in a powerfully economical way.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey