Romantic Communist

Day 1,657, 04:54 • Published in USA Cyprus • by Vote Alert

Nâzım Hikmet Ran (January 15, 1902 – June 3, 1963) commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet , was a Turkish poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist. He was acclaimed for the "lyrical flow of his statements". Described as a "romantic communist" and "romantic revolutionary", he was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated into more than fifty languages.





Invitation
Galloping from the Far East
reaching to the Mediterranean like a mare head
this land is ours.

Wrists in blood, teeth clenched, feet bare
and like a silk carpet this land,
this hell, this heaven is ours.

Let the alien doors be closed, let them not open again,
abolish man's servitude to man,
this invitation is ours.

To live like a tree in solitude and free
and like a forest in solidarity,
this yearning is ours.


Nazım Hikmet (1902–1963)




The Little Girl
That is me knocking the doors,
knocking the doors one by one.
You can’t see me,
because dead are not visible.
It has been some 10 years,
since I died at Hiroshima.
I am a seven years old girl.
Dead children do not grow.
First my hair cached fire,
then my eyes burned.
I became a fist full of ashes,
My ashes blew in the wind.
I don't ask anything
from you, for myself.
Children who burned like paper
can't even eat candy.
I knock your door,
aunt, uncle, give a sign,
so that the children don't get killed,
so that they can also eat candy.



SINCE I WAS THROWN INSIDE

Since I was thrown inside
the earth has gone around the sun ten times.
If you ask it : "Not worth mentioning
a microscopic scan."
If you ask me : "Ten years of my life."

I had a pencil
the year I was thrown inside.
I used it up after a week of writing. If you ask it :
"A whole lifetime."
If you ask me :
"What´s a week."

Since I´ve been inside
Osman did his seven-and-a-half
for manslaughter and left,
knocked around on the outside for a while,
then landed back inside for smuggling,
served six months, and got out again;
yesterday we had a letter - he´s married,
with a kid coming in the spring.

They´re ten years old now
the children who were born
the year I was thrown inside.
And that year´s foals, shaky on their spindly long legs,
have been wide-rumped, contented mares for some time.
But the olive seedlings are still saplings,
still children.

New squares have opened in my far off city
since I was thrown inside.
And my family now lives
in a house I haven´t seen
on a street I don´t know.
Bread was like cotton, soft and white,
the year I was thrown inside. Then it was rationed,
and here inside men killed each other
over black loaves the size of fists.
Now it´s free again
but dark and tasteless.

The year I was thrown inside
the SECOND hadn´t started yet.
The ovens at Dachau hadn´t been lit,
nor the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Time flowed like blood from a child´s slit throat.
Then that chapter was officially closed.
Now the American dollar talks of a THIRD.

Still, the day has gotten lighter
since I was thrown inside.
And "At the edge of darkness,
pushing against the earth with their heavy hands,
THEY´ve risen up" halfway.

Since I was thrown inside
the earth has gone around the sun ten times.
And I repeat once more with the same passion
what I wrote about THEM
the year I was thrown inside :
"They who are numberless
like ants in the earth,
fish in the sea,
birds in the air,
who are cowardly, brave,
ignorant, wise,
and childlike,
and who destroy
and create,
my songs tell only of their adventures."
And anything else,
such as my ten years here,
is just so much talk.



wiki Nazım Hikmet Ran



Living is no laughing matter: (Yaşamak şakaya gelmez)


You must live with great seriousness (Büyük bir ciddiyetle yaşayacaksın)
Like a squirrel, for example (Bir sincap gibi mesela)
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, (Yani , yaşamın dışında ve ötesinde hiçbir şey beklemeden)
I mean living must be your whole occupation. (Yani, bütün işin gücün yaşamak olacak.)

Living is no laughing matter: (Yaşamak şakaya gelmez)

You must take it seriously, (Yaşamayı ciddiye alacaksın)
So much so and to such a degree (Yani o derecede, öylesine ki,)
That, for example, your hands tied behind your back, your back to the wall, (Mesela, kolların bağlı arkadan, sırtın duvarda)
Or else in a laboratory in your white coat and safety glasses, (Yahut, kocaman gözlüklerin, beyaz gömleğinle bir laboratuvarda)

You can die for people-- (İnsanlar için ölebileceksin)
Even for people whose faces you've never seen, (Hem de yüzünü bile görmediğin insanlar için,)
Even nobody urged you for this (Hem de hiçkimse seni buna zorlamamışken)
Even though you know living is the most real, the most beautiful thing. (Hem de en güzel, en gerçek şeyin yaşamak olduğunu bildiğin halde.)

I mean, you must take living so seriously (Yani, öylesine ciddiye almalısın ki yaşamayı,)
That even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees-- (Yetmişinde bile, mesela, zeytin dikeceksin,)
and not for your children, either, (Hem de öyle çocuklara falan kalır diye değil,)
But because although you fear death you don't believe it,(Ölmekten korktuğun halde ölüme inanmadığın için,)
Because living, I mean, weighs heavier. (Yaşamak, yani ağır bastığından.)


Let's say you're seriously ill, need surgery, (Diyelim ki, ağır ameliyatlık hastayız,)
Which is to say we might not get from the white table. (Yani beyaz masadan bir daha kalkmamak ihtimali de var)
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad about going a little too soon, (Duymamak mümkün değilse de biraz erken gitmenin kederini)
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told, (Biz yine de güleceğiz anlatılan bektaşi fıkrasına)

We'll look out the window to see it's raining, (Hava yağmurlu mu, diye bakacağız pencereden)
Or still wait anxiously for the latest newscast (Yahut da yine sabırsızlıkla bekleyeceğiz en son ajans haberlerini)

Let's say we're at the front-- for something worth fighting for, say. (Diyelim ki, dövüşülmeye değer bir şeyler için, diyelim ki, cephedeyiz)
There, in the first offensive, on that very day, (Daha orda ilk hücumda, daha o gün)
We might fall on our face, dead. (Yüzükoyun kapaklanıp ölmek de mümkün)
We'll know this with a curious anger, (Tuhaf bir hınçla bileceğiz bunu,)

But we'll still worry ourselves to death (Fakat yine de çıldırasıya merak edeceğiz)
About the outcome of the war, which could last years. (Belki yıllarca sürecek olan savaşın sonunu)
Let's say we're in prison and close to fifty, (Diyelim ki, hapisteyiz, yaşımız da elliye yakın,)
And we have eighteen more years, say, before the iron doors will open. (Daha da on sekiz sene olsun açılmasına demir kapının)

We'll still live with the outside, (Yine de dışarıyla beraber yaşayacağız,)
With its people and animals, struggle and wind-- (İnsanları, hayvanları, kavgası ve rüzgarıyla)
I mean with the outside beyond the walls. (Yani, duvarın arkasındaki dışarıyla.)
I mean, however and wherever we are, (Yani nasıl ve nerde olursak olalım)
We must live as if we will never die... (Hiç ölünmeyecekmiş gibi yaşanacak...)

This earth will grow cold, (Bu dünya soğuyacak,)
A star among stars (Yıldızların arasında bir yıldız,)
And one of the smallest, (Hem de en ufacıklarından,)
A gilded mote on blue velvet-- (Mavi kadifede bir yıldız zerresi yanı,)

I mean this, our great earth, (Yani, bu koskocaman dünyamız)
This earth will grow cold one day, (Bu dünya soğuyacak günün birinde)
Not like a block of ice (Hatta bir buz yığını)
Or a dead cloud even (Yahut ölü bir bulut gibi de değil,)
But like an empty walnut it will roll along (Boş bir ceviz gibi yuvarlanacak)
In pitch-black space ... (Zifiri karanlıkta uçsuz bucaksız.)
You must grieve for this right now (Şimdiden çekilecek acısı bunun,)
You have to feel this sorrow now-- (Duyulacak mahzunluğu şimdiden.)
For the world must be loved this much (Böylesine sevilecek bu dünya)
If you're going to say "I lived" ...