Damlataşı Dripstone

Damlataşı

Gözyaşını büyütünce
damlataşı olur mu?
Hani şu mağarada on beş yıl
damla damla akıp donan
Donup akan
 
Taş nasıl da yaşıyor şaşarsın
Damlataşından sarkıtlarla kaplı
bir mağarada gördüm taşın kalbini
Damla damla atıyor, büyüyordu
Dokunmamız yasaktı, insan eli
hep şifalı değil
Avuçtaki ter salgısı
katiliymiş damla taşının
Parmak değince duruyor
Taşlaşıyor öylece
 
Avucumun terlediği birileri
de benim katilimdi bir vakit
Aşkımı akıtırken damla damla
Sarktığım
                Taşlaştığım
                                  Damladan
                                                   Kırıldım
 

Dripstone

When tears grow bigger
do they become dripstones?
You know, like in those caves after fifteen years
dripping drop by drop and freezing
Frozen as they flow
 
You’d be surprised at how that stone lives
In a cave lined with dripstone stalactites
I have seen the heart of the stone
Drop by drop it was beating, growing
Touching was forbidden, the human hand
doesn’t always heal
The sweat pricking from our palms
will prove in fact the stone’s killer
When the finger touches it
It will petrify just like that
 
Someone sweating against my palm
once was my killer too
As my love flowed out drop after drop
from the stone
                       where I’d hung
                                                frozen
                                                           I broke
 

Dripstone

When tears grow bigger
do they become dripstones?
You know like in those caves after fifteen years
dripping drop by drop and freezing
Frozen as they flow
 
How that stone lives you’d be surprised
In a cave covered with dripstone stalactites
I have seen the heart of the stone
Drop by drop it was beating, growing
It was forbidden to touch, the human hand
isn’t always healing
The sweat secreted inside the palm
is apparently the stone’s killer
When the finger touches it
It petrifies just like that
 
Somebody sweating inside my palm
was also my killer at one point
As I was letting my love drip drop after drop
I broke
           from the drop
                       I was petrified by
                                    hanging from
 

“is apparently the stone’s killer” in the sense “I was told that sweat was the stone’s killer”

The ending: the order has to change in English because of the word order in Turkish that makes no sense in English, so here I’m providing word to word translation so you can see: Sarktığım (hanging from) Taşlaştığım (I was petrified by) Damladan (from the drop) Kırıldım (I broke)

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with Sarah Howe, Canan Marasligil Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey