by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, translated from the Turkish by Aysel K. Basci
From a mossy emptiness,
A slowly lightening
Underworld universe
Is pulling me to itself.
A star distance away,
Hazily and timidly,
Shapes dividing the time
Are awaking one by one.
Oh, crystal chandelier, lit instantly
By a single breath of silence!
In this mysterious trinity
The sky is getting closer to us.
The light's geometry
Is your garden of eternity.
Listen and you will hear
The voices of the beetles and the bees.
I know, no one can take
Successive drinks from the same fountain.
Every breath is like a farewell
From these familiar shores.
Against all odds,
Which dove’s wing
Built this palace
With its frothy flutter;
And which hand extended
This golden cup from an empty night,
As the days’ red fruit
Leaked from a thought?
Oh, constantly changing things
At the doorstep of a moment!
This lightening is waiting to play
At the bedside of every dream…
Yavaş yavaş aydınlanan
Bir deniz altı alemi,
Yosunlu bir boşluktan
Çekiyor kendine beni.
Bir yıldız uzaklığında
Uyanıyor birer birer
Ürkek bulanıklığında
Zamanı bölen şekiller.
Ey sükutun bir nefeste
Yaktığı billur avize!
Bu esrarlı müselleste
Gökler yakınlaştı bize...
Aydınlığın hendesesi
Sonsuzluk bahçendir senin;
Dinleyin geliyor sesi
Arılarla böceklerin!
Bilirim kimse içemez
Üst üste aynı pınardan,
Bir veda gibi her nefes
Alışılmış kıyılardan.
Hangi güvercin kanadı
Köpükten çırpınışında,
Bu sarayı tamamladı
Her tesadüfün dışında;
Ve hangi el boş geceden
Uzattı bu altın tası,
Sızdıkça bir düşünceden
Günlerin kızıl meyvası?
Ey eşiğinde bir ânın
Durmadan değişen şeyler!
Başucunda her rüyanın
Bu aydınlık oyun bekler…
Aysel K. Basci is a writer and literary translator. She was born and raised and Cyprus and moved to the United States in 1975. Her work has appeared in the Columbia Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, Adroit Journal, Aster(ix) Journal, Tint Journal, Bosphorus Review of Books and elsewhere.
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-1962) was a Turkish poet, novelist, literary scholar and essayist, widely regarded as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Turkish literature. He was a professor of aesthetics, mythology and literature at the University of Istanbul. Although he died more than 60 years ago, his writing and poetry remains very popular.