• Efe Duyan
• Raman Mundair
• Mima Simić
• Anahit Hayrapetyan
• Claudiu Komartin

Efe Duyan

26/10/09  Efe Duyan writes:

Prešeren’s protective eyes watch

over the city from his plinth.

Don’t look at the obvious :

                  he seems strong -

He looks at

the slow water flowing,

and how the time is fast.

Up and down with his giant’s step along the river,

and of course, he is drunk

and of course, the day is full of rain,

among the dream filled sonnets

a woman disappears slowly.

Don’t look at the obvious:

                 he trusts himself so much -

And although he feels the wind in his hair

he would fall at the feet of that woman.

And yet he can plant the tongue of Slovenia in the soil

he doesn’t have any words to call her back.

And Prešeren, I also have dreams, even though they’re not burning.

And Prešeren, I also have poems even though they’re not so brave.

And Prešeren, I also have a woman who hasn’t turned her back on me yet.

I’m thinking about how much she might be mine

in the wet and empty streets of Ljubljana.

It is possible to realise a dream,

but it’s not possible

to find the right words to call her back

before learning how to cry.

24 Ekim 09 Trans. by Raman Mundair*

Efe Duyan

* It was a great experience to work with Raman, my dear fellow traveller, on translating the poem. She has given fine advices so that maybe I am going to rewrite (at least to think about) some passages of Turkish the version. Have the poets to be always arrogant? I don't think so.

News