We Burn and Burn

We Burn and Burn

When a forest takes fire
-Chorus of cicadas that give birth to the sun
-windy dream of the cloud, story of the unceasing rain
-animality what enwraps us; blind journey of the worm, the bird
-nooks of the mountains, its dark shadows, silence of the underground lakes
-vagabondism of the rivers which leave behind every hill a tearful lover
-neverending song of the nymphs that dwells at creeks, streams
p e r i s h e s.

We burn when a forest burns, left a little futureless
ashes in our eyes, flaming stones, we are fiery rocks.
When a forest takes fire
stench of flesh and fume are in our throats.


Şerif Erginbay

Deadlike / Ölgün

Ölgün

Kışlanın kapısında bir kırmızı bulut
Akşam çeker perdesini, ay kayıp
Yolları hain dağlar, namlular soğuk
Unut masmavi gökleri ey kalbim
Unut denizleri, elindeki gülü unut
Gitsem mi geceyi sabaha bağlayıp
Çiçeği olmaya kayıp bir dağın
Belki yeniden doğmaya
Bambaşka bir çağın bahar aylarında.

Şerif Erginbay

Deadlike

A red cloud on the barrack's door
The night closes it's curtains, the moon is lost
Mountains with malicious roads, barrels are cold
O my heart, forget the bluest skies
Forget the seas, forget the rose in your hand
Should I go, binding the day to the night
To be a flower of a mountain
In an autumn of another time.

Şerif Erginbay

Translation from Turkish to English:  Özlem Bozkurt

Water Snakes

Water Snakes

Two purple flowers
Bend down to a loneliness
Mountain's shady side stretches its tight sheet
Starry night to the lips,
Damp to the gardens,
Figs to two honeyed mouths.

Şerif Erginbay

Translation from Turkish to English: Özlem Bozkurt

Su Yılanları

İki mor çiçek eğiliyor bir yalnızlığa
dağın gölgeli yamacı geriyor büyük çarşafını
dudaklara yıldızlı gece,
bahçelere nem,
incirler ballı iki ağıza.

Şerif Erginbay

#turkishpoetry #poetryphotography #poemoftheday #instapoem #originalpoem #poemsofig #poetrycommunity #poetrysociety #turkishpoem #writingpoetry #poemsofinstagram #poetryisnotdead #literature #poetry #poem #poet #lyrics #igpoem #igpoets

INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING

INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING

That, the rebuking in words,
today or tomorrow,
and that, the accured docile rancour,
I know, they will come and find me,
for wearing out the crown of defeat,
In the back, there is the blackened history.

That, the rebuking in words,
once again builds up
my insufficient story;
from beginning to end
and end to beginning,
to bleed my heart.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

...

EKSİK DURUM

O dildeki azar
bugün ya da yarın,
o birikmiş uysal hınç
bilirim, gelir beni bulur
eskisin diye yenilginin tacı,
ardında karalanmış tarih.

O dildeki azar
yeniden kurar
eksik hikâyemi;
bir baştan sona
bir sondan başa,
kanatmak için yüreğimi.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Patchwork Autumn

Patchwork Autumn

We were managing to sit back to back,
even in separate islands,
as two spoiled and wild children
who try to put the days side by side,
not one after another,
while listening the autumn's ballad!

Şerif Erginbay

ENTANGLED PATH

ENTANGLED PATH

The body depresses the voice of love,

In the mountains, the foot step keeps on bleeding,

It shouts with its chained voice:

-Am I ready to meet her,

me, even and wise

with my roots in deep,

when she come quietly?

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

...

DOLAŞIK PATİKA

Aşkın sesini bastırır beden,

dağlarda kanar durur ayak izi,

bağırır zincirli sesiyle:

-Böyle kök salmışlığımla

sakin ve bilge;

hazır mıyım karşılamaya onu,

şimdi usulca geliverse?

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

WHAT'S PASSING IN YOUR FACE

WHAT'S PASSING IN YOUR FACE

Unwilling steps,

Understanding in the first, the last

Your feets not for shallow water;

Then pass the ways in your face.

Looking dreamy, the blue is hurt

Algae embraces the sadness of the rock,

Your rainings won't be late;

Then pass the clouds in your face.

The heart cuddles, shines the pearl,

Your banks cover your dreams with sand,

The wings of rainbow in deep;

Then pass the birds in your face.

You know, you've being waited in some place,

When you are hopeless, comes she quietly,

And will it be the light of Süveyda*;

Then pass the loves in your face.

*Süveyda: The black point in the heart (From Oriental Literature)

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

YÜZÜNDEN NELER GEÇER

İsteksiz adımlar, hani
Anlarsın ilk adımda sonunu da
Sığ sulara göre değil ayakların;
O zaman yüzünden yollar geçer.

Dalgın bakarsın, incinir mavi
Yosun sarılır kayanın hüznüne,
Geç kalmaz hiç yağmurların;
O zaman yüzünden bulutlar geçer.

Yürek sarılır, parıldar inci,

Kıyıların kum örter düşüne,
Derinlerde kanadı gökkuşağının;
O zaman yüzünden kuşlar geçer.

Bilirsin bir yerlerde beklendiğini,

Umarsızken, gelir sessizce,
Ve ışığı olur süveydanın;
O zaman yüzünden aşklar geçer.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

TINY SORROW OF THE SHADOW

TINY SORROW OF THE SHADOW

The mute time is breathing our shadow
The branch we cling to, is for the flowers.
The desolate sun, the lantern of poem.

From the shore to the path: your rose mirror.
Make the lantern flowered, stay with the sun.

Moment of silence. Tiny sorrow of the shadow.
Parenthesis of the sky is passing from our shores.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç 

İNCE KEDERİ GÖLGENİN

Gölgemizi solumakta lal zaman
Çiçek için tutunduğumuz dal.
Issız güneş, şiir feneri.
Kıyıdan patikaya: gül aynan.

Feneri çiçekle, güneşte kal.
Gürültüsüz an. İnce kederi gölgenin.
Göğün parantezi geçiyor kıyılarımızdan.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

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

Turkish Poetic - Şerif Erginbay

Serif Erginbay

CURRICULUM VITAE

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

He was born in a mountain village in Antalya in 1957.  He comleted primary school in the village where he was born, secondary school in Karaman as a boarding student and high school in Manavgat.

Between 1980-83 he continued his studies at the department of Turkish Language and Literature at Samsun 19 Mayıs University, but he couldn’t graduate because of the 12th. September  military coup, he was sent to prison. In 1987 he discovered a historical water mill in Ahmetler Canyon, which is up away from of Karpuzçay. Upon setting he lived there for 13  years with  his friends, wife and his two children. Dar Köprü (Narrow Bridge) consisits of  the poems of that period.

Since 1988 he has published his poems that he carried on struggling along “Son Yeni Biçem,Kıyı,Yaşasın Edebiyat, Bahçe, İnsan Şiir Defteri, Morca, S’imge” magazines for a long time. His first poem book  Dar Köprü was published in 2000 by Hera Poem Library.

He has been living in Antalya since 2000 and he has been studying as a text writer, on literature magazines, graphing concepts and desktop puplishing.

His poem book file called “Geniş Zamanlar, which is ready to be published, can also be reade as an expression of concern and worry og hectic city life, and as a struggle to keep up with the main time of love, hope and existence.

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

SHINING SIDE BY SIDE

SHINING SIDE BY SIDE

Oh, what a long journey
for this beautiful sun!
we began flying in our rainy days.

You were borned, we were borned… once again:
We\'ve given ourselves a smile of deep blue!
the sea is between the earth
and the copper sky.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

YAN YANA IŞIMA

Ah ne uzun yolculuk?
bu güzel güneşe;
uçkunuz yağmurlarımızda.

Doğdun, doğduk… yeniden:
Masmavi bir gülümserlik olduk bize?
deniz yerle bakır göğün arasında.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

PATCHWORK AUTOUM

PATCHWORK AUTOUM

We were managing to sit back to back,
even in separate islands,
as two spoiled and wild children
who try to put the days side by side,
not one after another,
while listening the autoum’s ballad!

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

ÇOK PARÇALI GÜZ

Biz; günleri art arda değil, yan yana dizmeyi deneyen iki
şımarık ve çılgın çocuk olarak ayrı adalarda bile sırt sırta
oturmayı becerebiliyorduk güzün türküsünü dinlerken!

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

THE FUME

THE FUME

I hung the dawn to my branch,
my life had turned to a breeze.

I was staying in your path until evenings,
in your words, I sheltered.
The places often gone, are that I always returned.

I hung the dawn to my branch, I saw a sea.
After the sea, in that fume I died.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

DUMAN

Şafağı dalıma astım, yele dönmüştü ömrüm.

Patikanda akşamlardım, sığınırdım diline.
Hep gidilen yerlerdi, benim durmadan döndüğüm.

Şafağı dalıma astım, bir deniz gördüm.
Denizden sonra o dumanda öldüm.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

IN BLUE

IN BLUE

Night rounds up,
turns itself
When forgotten, defines its mean
a brunette memory
To far edge of the sky, it drops its voice…
smiles to orange, rose side of the dawn…
a cloud embraces,
spreads the day out…
A cloud in blue…

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç Atasayar

MAVİLİ

Gece tamamlar,
döner kendini
Unutulduğunda anlamını tanımlar
esmer bir anı
Göğün uzak kıyısında düşürür sesini..

Turuncuya gülümser şafağın gül yanı..

Bir bulut sarar,
genişler gün..
Bir bulut mavili.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

ENTANGLED PATH

ENTANGLED PATH

The body depresses the voice of love,
In the mountains, the foot step keeps on bleeding,
It shouts with its chained voice:

-Am I ready to meet her,
me, even and wise
with my roots in deep,
when she come quietly?

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

DOLAŞIK PATİKA

Aşkın sesini bastırır beden,
dağlarda kanar durur ayak izi,
bağırır zincirli sesiyle:

-Böyle kök salmışlığımla
sakin ve bilge;
hazır mıyım karşılamaya onu,
şimdi usulca geliverse?

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDİNG

INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDİNG

That, the rebuking in words,
today or tomorrow,
and that, the accured docile rancour,

I know, they will come and find me,
for wearing out the crown of defeat,
In the back, there is the blackened history.

That, the rebuking in words,
once again builds up
my insufficient story;
from beginning to end
and end to beginning,
to bleed my heart.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Translation from Turkish: Pembenur Güvenç

EKSİK DURUM

O dildeki azar
bugün ya da yarın,
o birikmiş uysal hınç
bilirim, gelir beni bulur
eskisin diye yenilginin tacı,
ardında karalanmış tarih.

O dildeki azar
yeniden kurar
eksik hikâyemi;
bir baştan sona
bir sondan başa,
kanatmak için yüreğimi.

ŞERİF ERGİNBAY

Schmetterlingsflug

Schmetterlingsflug

Zwei Flügel beugen sich vor dem scheidenden Tag

Ans Gestern erinnernd weitet sich die Zeit

Eine wissende Wolke bedeckt seine Rose

Zwei Flügel, setzen sich ab an den Spitzen der Äste

Die Haut, die unter  zartem Tüll zerreißt

Der Schmetterling küsst den Wind aus seiner Lücke

Schenkt dem Leben die Farbe seines ebenbürt'gen Körpers

Zwei Flügel, sich jetzt streckend in die Stille

Şerif Erginbay

Übertragung von Bülent Ökte

...

Kelebek Uçuşu

İki kanat eğilir önünde eksilen günün
Dünü anımsayarak genişler zaman
Sırdaş bulut örter üstünü gülünün
İki kanat, şimdi uç dallarına konan.

Tendir altında yırtılan ince tülün
Kelebek rüzgârını öper boşluğundan
Bağışlar rengini yaşama denk ölünün
İki kanat, şimdi yalnızlığına uzanan.

Şerif Erginbay