Buzul Glacier

Buzul

O gölde buzlarla çevrilmiş, binlerce yıldır ölüydüm.
 
Uyandırdın.
 
Uyandım ve yanmış bir ormanın sisinde buldum uykumu.
 
Geceye yapıştı gövdem.
 
Bir buzulun derin ışığından tene akan beyazlık
 
Hatırlattı;
 
O gölde yürüdün sen.
 
Ten ve iz bırakarak.
 

Glacier

Dead to the world a thousand years,
 
in a lake immured in ice.
 
You woke me up.
 
Mist.  I found I'd been sleeping
 
in a charred forest.
 
My body clung to night.
 
White light from the depth of the glacier
 
floods into my skin,
 
reminds me –
 
you walked on that lake.
 
Leaving your tracks – skin, scars.
 

Glacier

I’ve been dead for thousands of years, in this lake surrounded with ice.
 
You woke me up.
 
I woke up and I found my sleep in the fog of a burnt forest.
 
My body stuck to the night.
 
The whiteness flowing to the skin from the deep light of the glacier
 
Reminded me;
 
You walked on that lake.
 
Leaving skin and trace.
 

Notes:

The word “gövde” can mean body, trunk, stem, carcass…

Last line: in Turkish, “iz birakmak” is a phrasal verb that means “leave trace” but can also mean “leave behind” or “scar”. And here, the word “ten” which means “skin” is also linked to the verb “birakmak” (to leave). Literally “to leave skin”. “Flesh” is also another possible translation for “ten”.

Original Poem by

Bejan Matur

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with Jen Hadfield Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey