Phoenix

By Gozde Kurt

Translated by Thomas Parker and Gozde Kurt

 

Dark is the sun.

The day’s guest is the night.

My life misses the light.

My eyes are wide shut.

 

The woods won’t help me find my way.

Grabbing the earth,

Feeling the branches’ dryness with each and every crackle

I step,

From the swampland past onto the next.

 

I sense, not far away, a green motion

It’s as if the feather of

A baby phoenix falls on my hair.

My pupils, the eye’s baby, dilate.

 

Then, you show up.

There falls white rains.

If only you could see how the sky unveils.

 

It’s as if the darkness could be a lie.

It turns out the sole truth is us.

Us, plus this white rain.

It’s as if the night, on my day,

Never perched.

 

Like a poem, I read you

Reading under the phoenix’s wing,

It’s as if love

Like this has never been narrated.

 

 

SİMURG

 

güneş karanlık.

gündüze misafir gece.

ıskalar yaşantım ışığı.

gözlerim alabildiğine kapalı.

 

orman yardım etmez yolumu bulmama.

yoklayarak toprağı,

kuruluğunu duyarak dalların her çıtırtıda,

atarım adımımı,

bir önceki bataklıktan öteye.

 

bir yeşil kıpırtı duyarım az uzakta;

sanki yavru Simurg’dan

bir tüy düşer saçlarıma.

büyür göz bebeklerim…

 

sen çıkagelirsin sonra;

beyaz yağmurlar yağar.

nasıl açılır gökyüzü bilsen…

 

sanki yalan olur karanlık;

tek gerçek bizmişiz.

biz, bir de bu beyaz yağmur.

sanki gecem gündüzüme,

hiç tünememiş.

 

bir şiiri okur gibi,

Simurg’un kanadından okurken seni,

sanki aşk daha önce,

hiç böyle söylenmemiş.

 

*

Gözde Kurt was born in Kurtuluş, Istanbul. She started to write poems and short stories while in primary school. Her first novel Kozanın Tereddütü (The Cocoon’s Hesitation) was published in 2009. Her book of short stories entitled Ölü Çiçekler Müzesi (The Museum of Dead Flowers) was published and taken into consideration for the Yaşar Nabi Nayır Prize in 2011. Afterwards, she started travelling for three years. After her travels through Cuba and countries in Europe and Latin America she returned to the writer’s life with Köprüde Durup Beni Öpmesini Bekleyeceğim (I’ll Stand on the Bridge and Wait for The Kiss). She earns her living as a translator and is continuing her education in the English Language and Literature Department in Istanbul University.

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