Camaşır İpleri Washing Lines

Camaşır İpleri

Yarın yeni değil

Bir bitmeyen bugünde
asılı hayat
Soluk mavi mandallarla
tutturulmuş umudum
Pas izi kalmasın diye
habire omuz başlarıma bakıyorum
 
Güneşe asılmış çamaşırlar
gibi olmayı isterdim
ak pak mis ferah
rüzgârla oynaşmayı
Ama bazen yaptığından utandırıyorlar
Havada kalınca uzattığın el
boşluk kanatıyor avucumu
İsa’nın yaraları da çividen değil
ihanetten, anlıyor oluyorum
 
Yine de bırakıyorum kendimi
bir kez daha tesadüfe
güzele şaşırmaya
Lavanta değil beyaz sabun kokuyorum
gecenin sabahında
 

Washing Lines

Tomorrow is not new
Life is suspended
on a today without end
My hope hangs
from faded blue clothespegs
I keep checking the shoulders
to stop rust stains from forming
 
I wish I could be like
washing hung out in the sun
spick and span and fresh and clean
fondled by the wind
Yet sometimes they make you feel ashamed
The outstretched hand not taken
an emptiness that makes my palm bleed
Now I know the stigmata were caused
not by nails but by betrayal
 
And yet, once again,
I give myself up to happenstance
to be surprised by beauty
As dawn breaks
I smell soap, not lavender
 

Laundry Lines

Tomorrow is not new

On a never ending today
hanged is life
With faded blue clothespins
my hope is suspended
To keep rust stains from forming
I keep checking my shoulder pads
 
Laundries hanged out in the sun
I wish I could be like them
white clean neat fresh
fondling with the wind
Yet sometimes they embarrass you of your actions
The extended hand that went unanswered
emptiness draws blood in my palm
The crucifixion wounds were not from the nails
they were from the betrayal, I realize
 
And yet I let myself go
Once again to happenstance
to be surprised by beauty
I don’t smell of lavender but white soap
at the dawn of the night
 

This tender, delicate poem full of the fresh imagery of washing and clotheslines articulates the alienation someone like Karin Karakaşlı experiences as an Armenian living in Turkey.

As with her other two poems, it was a delight to translate. Our main interventions, as you’ll see if you compare our final version with Canan’s literals, were mainly concerned with altering the order of the syntax since, in English, it’s usually best to put the subject at the beginning of a sentence.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey