MY LIGHT HAS GONE / Serif Erginbay -Mine workers and for SOMA-

MY LIGHT HAS GONE

My wife, goodbye, I am running out of light,
My friends dead beside me.
I think I can no longer bring coal-smelling bread.
This is it my children, goodbye.
Mom, Dad, farewell and forgive my any wrong doings.
My light is running out, goodbye …

In the silence of the mine that has fallen inside not on top of me
I hear your voices one by one, I see your faces,
My light is running out, my breath is running out, I know,
Slowly, I am being buried into the dark heart of the earth.

My light went out. Now, I am going…,
Ah, now most of all, I wish you know,
How much I miss the clouds, the trees and the sky.
My light went out… Goodbye. My friends gone already.
Now, I am going too.

SERIF ERGINBAY

NY Daily News wrote: “SOMA, Turkey — Women wailed uncontrollably, men knelt sobbing and others just stared in disbelief outside a coal mine in western Turkey as rescue workers removed a steady stream of bodies from an underground explosion and fire that killed at least 232 workers. The fate of more than 100 miners remained unclear in one of Turkey’s worst mining disasters.”

Now, the death toll is 301. And it is still believed there are more people trapped in the mine. Those are possibly the illegal workers.

I just want to translate a poem written 4 years ago, probably related to another mine disaster in Turkey, by Serif Erginbay. I hope the poet forgives me for any loss in the deep meaning of his poem during translation.

(Nuray AYKIN)

IŞIĞIM SÖNDÜ

-madencinin son mektubu-

Karıcığım hoşçakal, ışığım azalıyor,
Yanımda ölü arkadaşlarım.
Artık kömür kokulu ekmekler getiremeyeceğim sanırım.
Buraya kadarmış çocuklarım, hoşçakalın,
Hakkınızı helal edin; anacığım, babacığım.
Işığım azalıyor, hoşçakalın..

Üstüme değil içime çöken ocağın sessizliğinde
Tek tek seslerinizi duyuyorum, yüzlerinizi görüyorum,
Işığım azalıyor, soluğum azalıyor, biliyorum,
Yavaş yavaş dünyanın kara kalbine gömülüyorum.

Işığım söndü, işte gidiyorum..,
Ah, en çok da şimdi, bir bilseniz
Nasıl da bulutları, ağaçları, gökyüzünü özlüyorum.
Işığım söndü.. Hoşçakalın, arkadaşlarım çoktan gitti,
Artık ben de gidiyorum…

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY