Stratejik konum Strategic

Stratejik konum

Bir ılgın ağacıyla tanışmıştım
 
Deniz kıyısında haşmetli neşeli
 
bir yeşildi
 
Çok oturmuşluğum dertleşmişliğim var onunla
 
Güngörmüş pürtüklü gövdesini
 
okşar, hışırtılı dallarına bırakırdım
 
kimselere söyleyemediklerimi
 
Şehre dönmeden sarılır helalleşir
 
Bir sonraki yaza görüşmek üzere derdik
 
Sonraki yaz geldiğimde denizde
 
bir boşluk vardı
 
Neyi eksik bilemedim önce
 
Derken bir baktım ılgınımı
 
budamışlar ortasından
 
Deniz manzarasını kesmesin diye
 
Bana görünmek istemedi ılgın elletmedi
 
kendini çünkü dalı kalmayınca
 
gövdesini yaprak basmıştı ve
 
güzelim üst dalları artık küskün
 
sarı çırpılardı
 
Denizi öyle sevmişler ki ağacına kıymışlar
 
Sahip olacaksan bir şeye geri kalanı engeldir
 
Stratejik konumun yanlışsa
 
Bedel ödetirler duruşuna
 
Ilgın ne bilsin bunları
 
Sevmek ne tuhaf ne acıklı bir kelime
 
Denizin başladığı yerde duruyorum
 
Kum ıslak ve yoğun
 
Tabanımın şeklini alıyor bastığım yerde
 
Ama denizin o sıfır noktasında
 
Hiçbir iz kalıcı değil
 
Bir cilveli hareketle siliverir beni
 
İnsanların birbirinin yüzüne nal izi
 
bıraktığı bir şehirdenim
 
Hepimizin elinin altında buz
 
torbaları ve hücre yenileyici kremler
 
Geceler o izleri okşamakla
 
Gündüzler saklamakla geçiyor
 
Toplu yalana yeni gerçeklik diyoruz
 
Riya meşruiyet kazanıyor
 
Hep bir kayıp hep bir eksilme duygusu
 
var. Sanki bir şeylerini
 
çaldılar, sen hiç bilemedin
 
Adını koymadıkça kendinden eksildin
 
Koca aşklar matruşkalara ufalandı
 
Ne zamandır yetiyor sevdiklerine
 
‘Sen de artık herkes gibisin’ kalıbı
 
Gerisi hep o aynı irtifa kaybı​
 

Strategic

I met a salt cedar
 
by the sea
 
It was a cheerful stately green
 
I sat with it and shared my troubles many times
 
caressing its rough, wise trunk
 
To its rustling branches I would trust
 
all the things I couldn’t tell
 
Before my return to the city we embraced, bid farewell
 
Till next summer, we said
 
The next summer I came to the sea
 
there was an emptiness
 
At first I didn’t realise what was missing
 
Then I saw my salt cedar
 
split down the middle
 
obscuring the sea view no longer
 
The salt cedar didn’t want me to see it, to let me touch
 
the spots bared of branches
 
Its hollowed trunk filled with leaves
 
and its beautiful upper boughs now disconsolate
 
yellow limbs
 
So much did they love the sea they sacrificed its only tree
 
In the quest to possess something, everything else becomes pure obstacle
 
If your strategy means standing in the wrong position
 
you’ll be made to pay the price
 
How could the salt cedar know all this
 
What a strange and painful word is love
 
I’m standing where the sea begins
 
The sand is wet and thick
 
It takes the shape of my sole where I step
 
But at this zero point of the sea
 
No trace is permanent
 
It will erase me with one coquettish flick
 
I come from a city where
 
people leave horseshoe welts on other people’s faces
 
At our fingertips we all have ice
 
packs and cell renewal creams
 
Nights go by caressing those scars
 
Days spent hiding them
 
We call a mass lie the new truth
 
Hypocrisy is going legitimate
 
There is always a sense of loss, always a sense
 
of being diminished. As though something of yours
 
were stolen, but you had no idea
 
The longer it went unnamed the more you lost a part of yourself
 
A vast love story dwindled down to matryoshka dolls
 
Since when is the ‘You’re like everyone else now’ mould
 
enough for the ones you love
 
What’s left is always the same old loss of altitude
 

Strategic Position

I had met a Tamarix
 
It was a majestic happy green
 
by the sea
 
I’ve been sitting, sharing my troubles many times with it
 
caressing its rough, well-lived/wise trunk
 
I would leave to its rustling branches
 
all I didn’t tell anyone
 
Before going back to the city we would embrace, bid farewell
 
So long until next summer we would say
 
The next summer I came to the sea
 
there was an emptiness
 
First I didn’t understand what was missing
 
When I saw my Tamarix
 
pruned by the middle
 
So that it won’t cut the sea view
 
It didn’t want to be seen by me the Tamarix didn’t let me touch
 
itself because when it didn’t have any branches left
 
its trunk filled with leaves and
 
its beautiful branches above were now sad/disconsolate
 
yellow limbs
 
They loved the sea so much that they sacrificed its tree
 
If you are to own something the rest is an obstacle
 
If your strategic position is wrong
 
They will make you pay the price
 
How would the tamarix know all this
 
To love is such a weird a painful word
 
I am standing where the sea begins
 
The sand is wet and thick
 
It takes the shape of my sole where I step
 
But at this zero level of the sea
 
No trace is permanent
 
It will erase me in one coquettish movement
 
I am from a city where
 
people leave horseshoe traces on each other’s faces
 
Right at our hands we all have ice
 
bags and cell renewal creams
 
Nights go by caressing those traces
 
Days are hiding them
 
We call a mass lie new truth
 
Hypocrisy is gaining legitimacy
 
Always a sense of loss, of being diminished
 
exists. As if some of your things
 
were stolen, you had no idea
 
The more you didn’t put a name on it you lost part of yourself
 
Giant loves diminished into matryoshka dolls
 
Since when is the “You’re like everyone else now” mould
 
enough for the ones you love
 
The rest is always the same loss of altitude
 

Note on STRATEJIK KONUM:

“Konum” can be: position, location, status, situation, attitude

Ilgın ağacı is a Tamarix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix (image search for the Turkish word: https://www.google.nl/search?q=ilgin+agaci&espv=2&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRlrTTpazTAhVsI8AKHZB6AusQ_AUIBigB&biw=1404&bih=720&dpr=2

In general, this poem is a very moving and painful summary of today’s Turkey: economic growth and political power at the cost of nature, the environment, and the most vulnerable people.

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with Sarah Howe Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey