Eflatun Lilac

Eflatun

Jeff’e
 
Eflatun günleri bilir misin?
Her şeyin masal olabildiği şafak saatlerini
Doğmayan ya da batmayan güneşin öncesini
Sanki dünyanın tek sakini senmişsin
Sanki zaman, öylece içerisinde durduğun eflatun
bir balonmuş gibi
 
Aşkta da öyle
Eflatun günlerin içine düşmüşsün
O şarkıda diyordu ya hani
-Söyleyeni genç yaşta bir nehre akıp gitmişti-
“Şarap yaptım leylak ağacından
Kalbimi katarak tarifine
İstediğimi görebileyim
İstediğim insan olabileyim diye
Leylak şarabı, aşkım gibi tatlı ve çarpıcı
aşkım gibi çalkantılı hissediyorum, leylak şarabı”
 
aşkla dururken nefesin eflatun
saçın gözün dokunuşun eflatun
yasemin fulya sümbül leylak
kokular eflatun
 
Kocaman bir ametist kristalinin içine
yerleşmişsin. Aşk kovuktur, korktuğuna
koşmaktır, zamanı durdurandır
Yerçekimsiz bir dünyada süzülürsün
kaçtığın mıknatısa
 
Her şey bittiğinde
-çünkü her şey biter itiraz etme sakın
biter her şey sonunda-
Kalbin geceleri mor, sabahları eflatun
olacak yediği her yumrukla.
 

Lilac

for Jeff
 
Do you know the lilac days?
Those daybreak hours when stories can exist
That twilight before the sun, which is not born and does not die
As though you were the only one in the world
As if time, just like that, was the lilac
balloon you were dwelling in
Love is like that
You tumbled into lilac days
His song flowed
– The singer lost to a river, way too young –
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
Makes me see what I want to see
And be what I want to be
Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
You breathe lilac when you stand with love
your hair your eyes your touch is lilac
jasmine fulya hyacinth lilac
senses are lilac
Into amethyst
you have crystallised. Love is hollow, it runs
towards what you fear, stops time
You swim in a world without gravity
towards the magnet you are running from
When it all ends
– everything ends, do not fight it
it all comes to an end, eventually –
Your heart is purple at night, lilac in the morning
it will darken with every blow
 

Lilac

for Jeff
 
Do you know the lilac days?
The hours of dawn when everything can be like a fairy tale
The before of the sun which does not rise or does not set [1]
It is as if you were the only resident of the world
As if time, just like that, was the lilac
balloon you were staying inside of [2]
 
It is the same in love
You fell into lilac days
Like he was telling in that song
-The one who sung it flowed and went into a river at a young age-
(here, Karin is referring to Jeff Buckley)
“I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
Makes me see what I want to see
And be what I want to be
Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love” [3]
Your breath is lilac when you stand with love
your hair your eyes your touch are lilac
jasmine daffodil hyacinth lilac
fragrances are lilac [4]
Into a huge amethyst crystal
you have settled. Love is hollow, it is running
towards what you are afraid of, it is what stops time
You float in a world without gravity
towards the magnet you are escaping from [5]
When everything is over
-because everything ends do not protest
it all ends in the end-
Your heart is purple at night, lilac in the morning
it will become with every punch/blow it receives. [6]
 

Translating Turkish-Armenian poet Karin Karakaşlı’s ‘Lilac’ was an extraordinary experience. The group felt it was important to retain the poem’s lyricism – an homage to American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, to whom the poem is dedicated – and dreamy feel as it slowly unpeels itself, transforming from a fairy tale-like description of love and dreaming to a critique of living in a country you love deeply but is capable of breaking you heart – if not your body. With the Turkish-Armenian experience in mind, we were careful with the choice of words in English that communicate a sense of belonging. For example, ‘dwelling’ felt more alive and assertive than ‘staying inside’. We also felt that retaining an original Turkish flower name –‘fulya’, which stems from Puglia in southern Italy, instead of ‘daffodil’ – retained the original poem’s musicality, while nodding to the word’s Italian origin, a wonderful example of the sponge-like fluidity of language.

Kostya Tsolakis, Poet-facilitator

Additional notes on the translation

[1]Doğmak in Turkish means “to be born” and is also the verb used for sunrise, so in Turkish, the sun literally is born.
[2] içerisinde durduğun: literaly “the one which you were inside of” is in the line before but in English the sentence structure moves. The Turkish line here is: “like a balloon” and the “lilac” referring to the balloon feels suspended in the air at the end of the previous line
[3] These are the lyrics of the song by Jeff Buckley.
[4] The flower names and the different “eflatun/lilac” can be played with here – see a list of definitions for eflatun.
The Turkish “fulya” for “daffodil/narcissus” comes from the word “Puglia” the region in Italy where the flower grows, but I also found out that that specific species is called “Poet’s Narcissus” in English: Narcissus poeticus.
Also note the word for the flower lilac in Turkish is leylak: it is different from the colour, but it sounds exactly like the English lilac, and see how Karin has chosen “leylak” and not “eflatun” in her translation of the song lyrics.
[5] kovuk is a cavity, a hole, a cove.
the verb for “to run” is “koşmak”, and the verb for “to fear/be afraid of” is “korkmak” float: the verb süzülmek has many meanings, here are some examples in context: of tears/sweat running down/pouring/flowing; of birds soaring – flying without flapping their wings; of a boat: moving silently; of a person: going quietly and secretly, as if gliding.
[6] itiraz etme sakın: the word sakın is used to emphasize the negation, like you’d say: “and don’t you dare!” or “Don’t even think about it.” It is like a warning.
the verb “bitmek” means to end, come to an end, finish, expire, cease….
sonunda: in the end, at last, eventually, finally…
“mor” is a colour, it can be purple or violet and can refer to amaranths, the unfading flowers (see Greek etymology)

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey